Developing Empirical Donning Times for Smoke Hoods

Few studies exist that report donning times for personal fire escape masks (aka; smoke hoods). Methods Engineering and Work Measurement are subfields of Industrial Engineering that have established statistically based techniques to empirically develop standards for donning and doffing times, including those for PPE such as smoke hoods. Subjects were trained on the proper method to don a smoke hood and performed five trials in succession with a short rest period between trials. Performance raters independently rated each element for speed and consistency. Times were checked for outliers and normalized for standard development. For the studied hood, the donning time totaled 39.1 seconds. An independent validation using a predetermined time and motion system resulted in a donning time of 36.4 seconds. It is important for researchers to utilize statistically recognized techniques and include sufficient details when conducting and reporting time study research, particularly when it regards safety critical issues.