Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:54

Consilium clothing - experts in workwear.

US military personnel are now dressing in new workwear which has been specially treated to repel mosquitoes.

This follows a new testing method being developed by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) which makes it easier to apply insecticides to workwear clothing.

Since 1991, the US military has used the insecticide permethrin to ward off mosquitoes, but this has occasionally proved problematic to apply to certain fabrics.

Ulrich Bernier, scientist at the ARS Mosquito and Fly Research Unit, developed a new efficiency test for use by the United States Marine Corps (USMC).

Mr Bernier's insect bite protection efficacy assessment can work on a wide variety of uniform fabrics to monitor protection against two species of mosquitoes.

Testing provides essential data in terms of how the workwear performs in protecting service professionals prior to the garments going into full production.

It successfully identified that press uniforms did not retain the permethrin, which led to the USMC developing new chemical binders for the insecticide.

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