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Heat Stress is the result of the body's inability to maintain a stable core temperature when subjected to a heat load. This occurs when the sum of the environmental heat load and the metabolic heat load exceeds the body's capacity for heat dissipation. Failure to dissipate the heat load results in increase in core temperature and the development of heat illness. This is a recognized problem in closed cockpit race cars and can lead to severe illness and even death. The Body's primary thermoregulatory pathway is sudation (the process of sweating and evaporative heat loss). Research, sponsored by Stand 21, has been carried out to study the effect of the “fire suit” on this process and to improve the breathe ability and performance in providing an environment for evaporative heat loss. The evaporative resistance and permeability index of the fabric define the comfort of the suit as experienced by the wearer.