of Tom Leamon, helped to promote greater safety of coal miners and to increase the cost-effectiveness of production. One of the IOM's most important contributions in ergonomics was in machine and system design, work that was passed to the manufacturers and contributed widely to worker safety and efficiency. Work on human factors and personal protective equipment (PPE) at the IOM started in the early 1970s, with studies of the impact of resistance to breathing caused by respirators, and resulted in guidance criteria that form part of respirator product standards to this day. In the 1980s and 1990s work continued with investigation of the utility of cooling garments such as ice jackets in hot environments, studies of the use and effectiveness of hearing protection, of the effectiveness of respirators in reducing exposure in the workplace, and of heat strain imposed by breathing apparatus. This latter work resulted in the development of permissible work times consistent with safe use of breathing apparatus, standards currently used by the UK Mines Rescue service. The PPE research has used ergonomic principles to design protective clothing and equipment that impose fewer demands on those required to use them. For example, IOM scientists helped develop improved powered helmet respirators following research that showed existing devices to be heavy, cumbersome, uncomfortable and intrusive. In the 1990s, on behalf of the UK fire service, studies were carried out of the physiological and ergonomic impacts of breathing apparatus, fire hoods and protective clothing. The studies on fire hoods showed that, contrary to common belief, they did not affect the ability of firefighters to localise sound. This led to a recommendation by the UK Home Office that all fire fighters should routinely be issued with such hoods, advice which is now followed throughout the UK. The IOM has helped to assess Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) protective clothing for the Home Office, and has recently assisted London Fire Brigade in the ergonomic assessment for selection of new protective clothing. IOM has won three awards from the Ergonomics Society most recently the President's Medal,(2009) for the work led by Dr Richard Graveling on personal protective equipment. Environment and health In the early 1990s, the IOM became involved in a series of projects in the European Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development that addressed, amongst other things, the public health effects of air pollution from fossil fuel power plant. These first