THE INVESTIGATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE NOVEL CONCEPT OF A PLURISENSORIAL WEARABLE DEVICE TO PREVENT OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE

A report of the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL) highlights that work-related exposures are estimated to account for about 15% of all adult respiratory diseases. Volatile organic compounds (VOC) are within working environment one of the highest cause of asthma, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cystic fibrosis (CF), and respiratory tract infections. According to the International Labour office the best way to reduce the number of risks and of disease is, besides information, the prevention both for the workers and for the employer. There are two levels of prevention: (i) environmental monitoring and (ii) the use of personal protective equipment. The present paper aims at presenting the methodology of a novel concept to prevent respiratory diseases inside the specific working environment of a coating plant. The concept is a plurisensorial wearable device with protective purpose, able to detect the air quality and the health conditions of the workers. The project is object of a founded European Research Project (SAF€RA Joint Call 2014) within a consortium made up of Design Department of Politecnico di Milano, Delft University of Technology and Comftech S.r.l. (an Italian Company specialized in electronic/smart textile) The objective of the research is to develop a device able to alert the user of hazardous conditions (voc evaporation or breathing problems) and to transmit the monitored data to the control room. The novelty of the concept lies in the exploitation of technological solutions already/today adopted in medical field (i.e wearable monitoring systems for physiological parameters) and military one (i.e the electronic nose developed by Nasa) The system intended to be developed during the research activity requires addressing issues by meeting not only technological requirements, but also user needs with a human-centred approach. When designing wearable technologies it is important to understand the needs of potential users/consumers. Indeed the paper will describe how design functional, reliable and acceptable products by involving the users in the design process.