CURRENT PROJECTS

At any given time, our staff and graduate students have several projects “in progress”.    Projects may be working at IU’s Human Performance Laboratories in Bloomington, at the Fire Department Training Network (http://www.fdtraining.com/) facility in Indianapolis, or on the streets of Indianapolis with the Indianapolis Fire Department (http://www.indy.gov/eGov/City/DPS/IFD/Pages/home.aspx)
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In the Lab….

Breathing mechanics and the metabolic cost of breathing associated with the firefighter’s self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA)

• How does the positive pressure environment of the SCBA mask alter breathing mechanics?
• Can a firefighter really “over breath” the SCBA?
• Does the SCBA device significantly increase the metabolic cost of breathing?         

With IFD…..

Pilot work on characterizing the on and off duty sleep architecture observed in career professional firefighters

• How does sleep architecture differ between on and off duty days?
• What is the distribution of REM and Non-REM sleep across a 24 hour on and 48 hour off duty cycle?
• What impact does the interruption of sleep on duty have on firefighter physical and cognitive abilities?

Pilot work on the toxic gas environmental exposure associated with structural firefighting

• We want to know how much carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide firefighters are exposed to under current SCBA standard operation procedures of IFD.
• We are working with IFD to track these gases from evolution by pyrolysis through a burning structure, into the firefighter, and finally out of the firefighter.
• The intent is to help IFD (and the fire service in general) better understand the threat these gases impose and guidelines to minimize exposure.