Friday, January 23, 2026

Texas A&M researchers expose hidden risks of firefighter gear in an effort to improve safety and performance

Study finds bulky personal protective equipment restricts movement and increases injury risk — especially for women.

Texas A&M University

When firefighters respond to an emergency, the gear they wear to protect themselves can also create challenges that could jeopardize their performance and safety. Their gear is bulky, and it may not fit perfectly. Those challenges can include restricted movement, added weight and increased heat stress that raise the risk of injury and health problems down the road.

Nearly 40% of the non-fatal injuries firefighters report involve their muscles and bones, and those injuries are often linked to the physical demands of the job and limitations that could be imposed by their personal protective equipment (PPE). Dr. Jenna Yentes of the Department of Kinesiology and Sport Management at Texas A&M University partnered with the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) to address this issue, exploring how PPE could impact firefighters’ ability to move and perform critical tasks — and ultimately improving safety for those who protect our communities. “Most research has focused on heat stress or chemical exposure,” Yentes explained. “Very little has looked at how firefighters actually move in their gear. That’s the gap we’re trying to fill.”

The project involved rigorous testing at TEEX’s Brayton Fire Training Field. Firefighters performed a series of tasks with their station wear and then again wearing their full bunker gear. The tasks ranged from joint flexibility tests to firefighting skills such as moving a charged hose line, dragging a 180 pound rescue dummy, forcing entry with a sledgehammer and throwing and climbing a ladder. These tasks mimic what firefighters encounter on the job, allowing researchers to measure strength, endurance and range of motion in realistic scenarios.

Findings showed firefighters lost up to 40 degrees of motion in their shoulders and up to 20 degrees in other joints when wearing their full gear. While they still completed the tasks, they had to adapt and potentially used more force, which could increase the risk of injury over time.

Yentes’ laboratory also conducted a previous survey of over 350 firefighters that showed female firefighters were two to four times more likely to report issues with their gear while performing firefighting tasks, especially during ladder tasks. This points to design limitations, as most gear is patterned for men and simply scaled down for women. “These insights raise important questions,” Yentes said. “If we can’t change the design immediately, can we improve fit? Can we tailor training to build the strength or flexibility firefighters need most?”

Better gear and evidence-based training programs could reduce the risk of injury, extend careers and improve emergency response. “Anytime somebody calls 911, it’s the worst day of their life. They expect us to show up ready,” said John Adams, a TEEX instructor and firefighter at The Woodlands Township near Houston. “This study shines a light on how gear affects our bodies, and how we can prepare for whatever’s next.”

The project is funded through a Catapult Grant from the College of Education and Human Development’s Research Enterprise and Outreach Office. Yentes hopes future research can be done to explore whether targeted strength, endurance or flexibility programs can offset the limitations from PPE. Keeping firefighters safe so they can keep communities safe is a goal she takes personally.

“As a firefighter’s daughter, I know what it’s like to want your loved one to come home safe,” Yentes said. “That’s what drives me, and what I hope this research will achieve.”

Journal

Applied Ergonomics

DOI

10.1016/j.apergo.2026.104730

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The effect of United States firefighters’ personal protective equipment on mobility and functional task performance: A scoping review

Article Publication Date

12-Jan-2026

Engineering a low-cost alternative catalyst for producing sustainable petrochemicals

Newly identified methods to harness the properties of tungsten carbide could yield viable substitutes for precious metals like platinum.

University of Rochester

Slip of the tungsten — image:
The evolution of carburization (depicted by the spheres) under kinetic control (illustrated by the surface contours). The molecular beams represent gas evolution under synthesis conditions while the fiery sphere highlights the formation of the pure tungsten semi-carbide phase with additional molecular beams at the top to illustrate its catalytic performance.
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Credit: Illustration by Sinhara M. H. D. Perera

Important everyday products—from plastics to detergents—are made through chemical reactions that mostly use precious metals such as platinum as catalysts. Scientists have been searching for more sustainable, low-cost substitutes for years, and tungsten carbide—an Earth-abundant metal used commonly for industrial machinery, cutting tools, and chisels—is a promising candidate.

But tungsten carbide has properties that have limited its applications. Marc Porosoff, an associate professor in the University of Rochester’s Department of Chemical and Sustainability Engineering, and his collaborators recently achieved several key advancements to make tungsten carbide a more viable alternative to platinum in chemical reactions.

The best turn of phase

Sinhara Perera, a chemical engineering PhD student in Porosoff’s lab, says that part of what makes tungsten carbide a difficult catalyst for producing valuable products is that its atoms can be arranged in many different configurations—known as phases.

“There’s been no clear understanding of the surface structure of tungsten carbide because it’s really difficult to measure the catalytic surface inside the chambers where these chemical reactions take place,” says Perera.

In a study published in ACS Catalysis, Porosoff, Perera, and chemical engineering undergraduate student Eva Ciuffetelli ’27 overcame this problem by very carefully manipulating tungsten carbide particles at the nanoscale level within the chemical reactor—a vessel where temperatures can reach above 700 degrees Celsius. Using a process called temperature-programmed carburization, they created tungsten carbide catalysts in their desired phase inside the reactor, ran the reaction, and then studied which versions performed the best.

“Some of the phases are more thermodynamically stable, so that’s where the catalyst inherently wants to end up,” says Porosoff. “But other phases that are less thermodynamically stable are more effective as catalysts.”

The researchers identified one particular phase—β-W₂C—that works especially well for a reaction that turns carbon dioxide into important precursors for making useful chemicals and fuels. With further fine-tuning by industry, Porosoff and his team think this phase of tungsten carbide could be as effective as platinum without the drawbacks of high cost and limited supply.

Plastic upcycling

Porosoff and his colleagues have also explored tungsten carbide as a catalyst for upcycling plastic waste and converting old plastics into high-quality new products. A study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, led by Linxao Chen from the University of North Texas, and supported by Porosoff and URochester Assistant Professor Siddharth Deshpande, showed how tungsten carbide can be used for a process called hydrocracking.

Not only was tungsten carbide less costly than platinum catalysts for hydrocracking, it was also more than 10 times as efficient.

Hydrocracking involves taking big molecules such as polypropylene—the basis of water bottles and many other forms of plastic—and chemically breaking them down into smaller molecules that can be used for new products. While hydrocracking has been used in oil and gas refining, applying it to process plastic waste has been a problem because of the high stability of polymer chains that make up most single-use plastics, and presence of contaminants that deactivate the catalysts. The precious metals, such as platinum, that are currently used as catalysts deactivate rapidly and are supported within microporous surfaces that do not have room for the long polymer chains in single-use plastics.

“Tungsten carbide, when made with the correct phase, has metallic and acidic properties that are good for breaking down the carbon chains in these polymers,” says Porosoff. “These big bulky polymer chains can interact with the tungsten carbide much easier because they don’t have micropores that cause limitations with typical platinum-based catalysts.”

The study showed that not only was tungsten carbide less costly than platinum catalysts for hydrocracking, it was more than 10 times as efficient. The researchers say this opens exciting new avenues for improving catalysts and turning plastic waste into new materials, supporting a circular economy.

Taking the temperature

Underpinning these advancements in creating more efficient catalysts is the ability to accurately measure temperatures on the catalyst surfaces. Chemical reactions can either absorb heat (endothermic) or release heat (exothermic), and controlling the catalyst surface temperature allows scientists to efficiently coordinate multiple reactions. But the measurements currently used to take the temperature of catalysts provide rough averages that do not give enough nuance to accurately measure the precise conditions needed to effectively study chemical reactions.

Using optical measurement techniques developed in the lab of Andrea Pickel, a visiting professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the researchers devised a new way to measure temperature within chemical reactors. They described the new technique in a study published in EES Catalysis.

“We learned from this study that depending on the type of chemistry, the temperature measured with these bulk readings can be off by 10 to 100 degrees Celsius,” says Porosoff. “That’s a really significant difference in catalytic studies where you’re trying to ensure that measurements are reproducible and that multiple reactions can be coupled.”

The team applied their new technique to study tandem catalysts, where an exothermic reaction provides enough heat to trigger an endothermic one. Effectively pairing these reactions can minimize waste heat and lead to more efficient chemical engineering processes.

Porosoff says the technique could also help change the way researchers conduct catalysis studies, leading to more careful measurements, reproducible work, and more robust findings across the field.

The ACS Catalysis study was funded with support from the Sloan Foundation and the Department of Energy; the Journal of the American Chemical Society study was funded with support from the National Science Foundation; the EES Catalysis study was funded with support from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority via the Carbontech Development Initiative.

Heat is transferred from a particle undergoing an exothermic reaction (red) to a particle undergoing an endothermic reaction (blue). A thermal probe excites a particle with infrared light, and the particle emits green light, providing a more accurate form of temperature measurement for the surfaces of catalysts than researchers were previously able to achieve.

Credit

Illustration by Sinhara M. H. D. Perera