Footwear for cold protection: Most occupational footwear passes the test according to EN ISO 20344

All footwear passed the test (Table 2). Thus, all tested footwear may be according to the standard classified as cold protective footwear, and as there is no additional classification, then they should possibly protect at any cold temperature from +18 °C to any temperature below -35 °C. By the side of these tests it is not very surprising that a footwear intended for cold did with good margins pass a modified test at much higher temperature gradient. The main issue is not that a sandal (S), a mesh shoe (R) or a thin textile shoe (H) did pass the test – it is clear for everybody that these are not for protection against cold. The problem is that the footwear (B and F) that has as low insulation as S, R, and H may be classified as cold protective and in this way giving the user a deceiving safety feeling and exposing him/her to higher risks. Background The present European (CEN) and international (ISO) standards for safety, protective and occupational footwear EN ISO 20344 – 20347 (2004) classify footwear as cold protective by an allowed 10 °C temperature drop inside the footwear during 30 minutes at an initial suggested temperature gradient of about 40 °C. It may be argued if a simple pass/fail test is proper for thermal testing – cold is not a certain temperature, but a wide temperature range that depends not only on temperature, but also on air velocity, heat production (activity) etc. However, a standard test on protective properties should certainly assure the intended protection levels. An earlier study (Kuklane et al., 1999) showed that low insulation footwear may pass the test. This study specifically chose for testing several footwear that can’t be considered as cold protective. Kalev Kuklane1*, Satoru Ueno2, Shin-ichi Sawada2 and Ingvar Holmér1