Sport and Exercise Science students research for the Fire Service

Students from the Sport and Exercise Science course at the School of Sport and Service Management have completed testing in the Welkin Laboratories heat chamber of behalf of the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service.

The two projects, carried out by Lee Howes and Emily Watkins as part of their dissertation projects, investigated the use of different undergarments and post heat exposure cooling methods for use by the Fire Service.

Lee Howes explains “The testing has shown me the real life application of scientific research which is sometimes far removed from the setting it can be applied to, in addition to a realisation of the huge physiological demands firefighters put themselves under”.

Other students on the course helped as participants and experimenters to complete the research trials.

Emily said “It was very hot and a lot of hours in the lab, but it was great to be able to do research that somebody else really wanted to know the answer to.”

Supervisor Dr Alan Richardson explains that the project is an excellent example of a number of projects run at the Welkin Laboratories particularly in the field of environmental physiology due to the excellent facilities available. Dr Richardson gave a keynote lecture of his funded work with the National Fire Service at the National FireFit Conference in Loughborough.