BeCool offers alleviation from PPE heat stress

Professor Saffa Riffat is leading a research team at Nottingham University in the development of the self-contained and long-lasting ‘cold pack’ that can be used with PPE in healthcare settings or patients on ventilators, as well as the public wearing face masks.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THE ENGINEERING RESPONSE TO COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a huge rise in the use of PPE, which can cause heat stress for those having to wear it for extended periods. Similarly, COVID-19 patients often display a high temperature, a situation that can be worsened if required to be put onto a ventilator in poorly ventilated or poorly air-conditioned hospital wards.

According to Riffat, conventional cold packs are ill-suited for Covid-19 situations because of their design complexity, lack of versatility, high unit cost, poor manufacturability, and recyclability.

“We have two types of BeCool,” he told The Engineer. “[A] self-cooling one and another one you can place in a refrigerator. However, both are reusable. We can design the BeCool [to] last two hours or more, but the pack can easily be replaced with another one.”