Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

A quite effective and convenient to use personal protective garment against some ARS effects is a poncho made out of a space/thermal blanket material shown in Fig. 1.  The advantage of a space blanket poncho is that it contains a layer of aluminum and covers a larger section of the body including the front which is useful against the Illumination type of ARS as well as a variety of the Implantation type of ARS.

The disadvantage of such ponchos is that they may be too hot to wear, are made of a thin material and as such are not durable, and that the layer of aluminum is thin and not protected causing it to wear out quickly.  The use of regular space/thermal blankets embedded into other garments (including as multi-layer) appears to be more durable, more cost effective and possibly protect better.  It was observed that a design with aluminum layers built into a protective garment with non-aluminized material used externally may be less hot to wear and protect better.

Standard Space/Thermal blankets were also found useful for additional shielding from ARS effects while asleep and when embedded into other protective gear (i.e. trash bag cape).

Trash bag cape (TBC)

It was found that a cape made out of large heavy duty trash bags is effective in reducing the severity of ARS effects as illustrated in Fig. 2.  This is assumed to be attributed to the fact that the trash bag material has some ARS shielding efficiency, and that a cape covers the spinal cord and the neck area which are frequently targeted by ARS.  It should be pointed out that the raised shape of the top of the cape appears important as it provides additional coverage of the back of the neck region were an onset of unpleasant effects caused by ARS is usually felt.  It should be pointed out that such a raised shape of the top of the cape resembles a piece of garment worn by Orthodox priests (called "phelonion" or "фелонь" / "риза" in Russian).  Phelonion also commonly contains a cross sewn at the back of it in the middle of the back which corresponds to the location where the Affected Person would occasionally feel a "plume" of ARS matter interacting with the body.

The trash bag cape demonstrated some effectiveness in reducing the strength of the ARS effects induced in the body.  Although this effectiveness appears to reduce as the bag gets creased during use.

One of the applications which the Trash bag cape is being using for is during brushing of teeth.  It was observed by the AP that one of the ways the ARS matter appears to be deposited into the neck region is while leaning the head down which results in the neck facing the ceiling such as for example during the brushing of teeth over the sink.  The AP would use the raised shape of cape "colar" to cover the back of the neck and part of the back of the head

Trash bag cape with Space blanket filling (SB-TBC)

The protective properties of a trash bag cape filled with a multi-layered space blanket insert (SB-TBC) shown in Fig. 3 where found to be good after several months of tests.  As can be seen from Fig. 3 SB-TBC is made by inserting a multi-layer space blanket insert into the heavy duty trash bag and affixing the corners of the space blankets to the inside of the corners of the trash bag (secured with a rubber band on the outside).  The effectiveness of the SB-TBC is the best while it still maintains its puffiness due to the multi-layer space/thermal blanket structure inside which creates a tighter fit around the neck providing better protection.  Once the space blankets inside set in resulting a looser fit of the SB-TBC around the neck the protection efficiency reduces.

The SB-TBC was implemented after attempting to wear a single space/thermal blanket poncho style by folding it in half and making a cut-out for the neck in the center.

Aluminized polyester film leg wraps

Over the course ARS studies at the Hampton, VA 23666 research site the Affected Person frequently felt some matter propagate up into the body along the legs from the ground causing a perception of being embedded into the tissue making muscle movements more difficult to make (i.e. in the legs and the chest).  One solution found useful against this type of ARS matter propagation was wrapping lower legs with thick aluminized polyester film bags (previously used herbal tea packaging) shown in Fig. 4 as can be seen in Fig. 5.  The shielding effect was found to be stronger if the aluminized polyester film bags are used directly over bare legs.