THERMOPHYSIOLOGICAL STUDY O F HUMAN STEAM HAZARD EXPOSURE A.V. Desroelle, A. Montmayeur, Panet and S. Etienne IMNSSA, BP 610, 83800 Toulon Naval, France INTRODUCTION Accidentalexposuretodirectsteamjetsor to a hot saturatedenvironmentis a potential hazard for some Navy military staff members and nuclear iodustry employees.Despiteaneffectivepotentialrisk,no jo b legislation o n human exposure to steam wa s found; only one short article deals with stearn engioe construction and security. Moreover, only a few old scientific references on steam exposur e effects on animals were found 1,2 . n recent literature, only physiological pathophysiologica l effects o f ry andhumid but saturated heat exposures are well documented 3,4 . These arguments point ou t the lack of medical an d physiologicalknowledge concerniogthe stearnhazard. Furthermore, different iodustrial and naval steam protective garments have beentested io our iostitute with a calorimeter. These garments were ioefficient to protect against steam exposure. At the most, they allowed t o s o f exposure time before a cutaneous second buru ioj ry occurred safety criteria for nuclearprotection . Differentbiological risks can appear after steam accident s 5 . The maio risk is a thermal one due to direct steam j e t exposure and/or to ho t saturatedvapor environment created by ho steam entry io a closed room. t will affect all th e human biological tissues, perhaps with more pronounced lethal effects o n specific organs respiratory airways, nervous structures . Condensation o f water occurs o n skin, clothiog and perhaps io the respiratory airways. Furthermore. a foggy environmentwould lead t o a low Visibility and to difficulties io escaping. Thus,thefinalpurpose o f ourprojectioprocess istucreateadatacollectionon biologica l impact o f st ea m ex po su re for elabor at ing efficient protectivesystems. To test thethennophysiologi calimpact o f steamexposure on thewholebody, thefirstapproachwasdonewithamathematicalsimulation o f th e steam acc ide nt. HYPOTHESIS AND METHODS a thermophysiological view, the steam stress can be applied to the fol lowiog: 1 the whole body with a more pronounced effect o n nude skio area o r 2 a specific area, the cephalic segment that contaios all the nerve centers and the respiratory tract, with a short-tenn lethal effect. Du e t o the potentialrisk o f steam exposure, experiments need to be done o n models, which avoids doiog experiments o n protected huruans. We used the mathematical model, PROTECT, developed for the DGA by th e CEPA laboratory CNRS for doiog first simulations ofhuruansteam exposure. We chose t he environmental parameters correspondiog to measures o f th e usual conditions
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A.V. Desroelle, A. Montmayeur, Panet and S. Etienne
IMNSSA, BP 610, 83800 Toulon Naval, France
INTRODUCTION
Accidental exposure to direct steam jets or to a hot saturated environment is
a potential hazard for some Navy military staff members and nuclear iodustry
employees. Despite an effective potential risk, no job legislation on human expo
sure to steam was found; only one short article deals with stearn engioe con
struction and security. Moreover, only a few old scientific references on steam
exposure effects on animals were found 1,2 . nrecent literature, only physio
logical and pathophysiological effects of ryand humid but not saturated heat
exposures are well documented 3,4 . These arguments point out the lack of
medical and physiological knowledge concerniog the stearn hazard.
Furthermore, different iodustrial and naval steam protective garments have
been tested io our iostitute with a calorimeter. These garments were ioefficient
to protect against steam exposure. At the most, they allowed to s of expo
sure time before a cutaneous second buru iojury occurred safety criteria for
nuclear protection .Differentbiological risks can appear after steam accidents 5 . Themaio risk
is a thermal one due to direct steam jet exposure and/or to hot saturated vapor
environment created by hot steam entry io a closed room. twill affect all the
human biological tissues, perhaps with more pronounced lethal effects on spe
cific organs respiratory airways, nervous structures . Condensation of water
occurs on skin, clothiog and perhaps io the respiratory airways. Furthermore. a
foggy environment would lead to a low Visibility and to difficulties io escaping.
Thus, the final purpose ofourproject io process is tu create a data collection on
biological impact of steam exposure for elaborating efficient protective systems.To test the thennophysiological impactofsteam exposure on the wholebody,
the first approach was done with a mathematical simulation ofthe steam accident.
HYPOTHESIS AND METHODS
a thermophysiological view, the steam stress can be applied to the fol
lowiog: 1 the whole body with a more pronounced effect on nude skio area or
2 a specific area, the cephalic segment that contaios all the nerve centers and
the respiratory tract, with a short-tenn lethal effect.
Due to the potential risk of steam exposure, experiments need to be done onmodels, which avoids doiog experiments on protected huruans. We used the
mathematical model, PROTECT, developed for the DGA by the CEPA labora
tory CNRS for doiog first simulations ofhuruan steam exposure.We chose the
environmental parameters correspondiog to measures of the usual conditions