Selected head and facial dimensions of mine rescue team personnel

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Abstract
Following a mine fire or explosion, rescue personnel will enter areas of the mine that contain toxic gases and that are immediately hazardous to life. During such operations, they will be wearing self-contained rescue breathing apparatus and full face masks. It is imperative that the face mask fit the wearer properly to prevent inward leakage of gases when the pressure in the mask becomes negative during inspiration. A properly fitting face mask depends on proper design and sizing. Sizing, in turn, depends on human facial characteristics. The large variety of human facial characteristics makes face mask design a difficult problem. The 47 Caucasian men measured represented both coal mining and metal/nonmetal mining and comprise about 2% of all active mine rescue personnel in the minerals industry. To determine if all important head and facial measurements need to be used for sizing masks, correlation coefficients for all head and face combinations were calculated. While the facial and head dimension of the civilian Causasian male population is now reasonably well known, the female and non-Caucasian industrial population is not. Furthermore, an increasing segment of these groups are required to wear personal protective equipment, but anthropometric surveys to provide the required dimensions are unavailable or include a different population than the one at risk. A more extensive survey of women and other racial groups in the industrial civilian population who use personal protection equipment is required.

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