Protective clothing systems: A technique for evaluating restriction of wearer mobility.

To allow designers to evaluate presently available protective clothing systems (as well as aiding the development of less restrictive systems), it is necessary to develop evaluation techniques to quantify the loss of mobility associated with wearing protective clothing. Using fire fighter turnout gear, this study illustrated the application of the Leighton Flexometer for the measurement of restriction to body movement caused by wearing protective clothing and equipment. Statistical analyses indicated significant differences in restriction to body movement between the designs of protective clothing and equipment configurations tested. Additionally, correlation coefficients between trials established values for tes-retest reliability.