First responder communication in CBRN environments: FIRCOM-CBRN study. Issue 8 (19th June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schumacher, Jan; Arlidge, James; Dudley, Declan; Van Ross, Jennifer; Garnham, Francesca; Prior, Kate
• Is Part Of: Emergency medicine journal. Volume 36:Issue 8(2019)
• Page Start: 456
• Page End: 458
• Publication Date: 2019-06-19
• Subjects: resuscitation -- CbRn -- communications; Emergency medicine -- Periodicals; 616.02505
• DOI: 10.1136/emermed-2019-208413
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1472-0205

Abstract

Abstract : Introduction: Recent terror attacks and assassinations involving highly toxic chemical weapons have stressed the importance of sufficient respiratory protection of medical first responders and receivers. As full-face respirators cause perceptual-motor impairment, they not only impair vision but also significantly reduce speech intelligibility. The recent introduction of electronic voice projection units (VPUs), attached to a respirator, may improve communication while wearing personal respiratory protection. Objective: To determine the influence of currently used respirators and VPUs on medical communication and speech intelligibility. Methods: 37 trauma anaesthetists carried out an evaluation exercise of six different respirators and VPUs including one control. Participants had to listen to audio clips of a variety of sentences dealing with scenarios of emergency triage and medical history taking. Results: In the questionnaire, operators stated that speech intelligibility of the Avon C50 respirator scored the highest (mean 3.9, ±SD 1.0) and that the Respirex Powered Respiratory Protective Suit (PRPS) NHS-suit scored lowest (1.6, 0.9). Regarding loudness the C50 plus the Avon VPU scored highest (4.1, 0.7), followed by the Draeger FPS-7000-com-plus (3.4, 1.0) and the Respirex PRPS NHS-suit scored lowest (2.3, 0.8). Conclusions: We found that the Avon C50 is the preferred model among the tested respirators. In our model, electronic voice projection modules improved loudness but not speech intelligibility. The Respirex PRPS NHS-suit was rated significantly less favourably in respect of medical communication and speech intelligibility.