NSF-Muses Project

Health Protective Textiles: Bridging the Disposable/Reusable Divide

Task 1:

A strategic modeling of functional textiles employed in medical textile products and chemical protective clothing based on expected protective functions against individual hazards;

Task 2:

A thorough analysis of material compositions and maufacturing processes, overall costs, and life cycles of both reusable and disposable textile products;

Task 3:

The assessment and theoretical modeling of health risk reduction and the energy consumption and the environmental impact of both materials during their whole life cycles;

Task 4:

Characterizing the recycling, reuse, and disposal of both reusable and disposable textiles, as well as possible alternative disposal methods;

Task 5:

A thorough analysis of social, political, and psychological images of both reuable and disposable textiles, including the relationships of these images to marketing efforts;

Task 6:

A study of the decision-making processes in the selection of reusable and disposable textiles in institutions, building upon the results of MUSES study;

Task 7:

Expanding the research areas to chemical-protective clothing and first responders uniforms using the developed theories and establish proper models of functions and performances;

Task 8:

Educational activities including working with professional associations to educate users of protective clothing, as well as undergraduate and graduate textiles and engineering students;

Task 9:

Collaboration with international textile researchers on an in-depth and comparative analysis of the policies, regulations, trends and new technologies associated with both materials.