hazmat suit
noun phrase

- a special suit that protects a person's body when they are dealing with dangerous substances

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

---
ORIGIN

HAZMAT is an abbreviation for “hazardous materials”—substances in quantities or forms that may pose a reasonable risk to health, property, or the environment. HAZMATs include such substances as toxic chemicals, fuels, nuclear waste products, and biological, chemical, and radiological agents.

Also known as decontamination suits, hazmat suits, aconsists of an impermeable whole-body garment worn as protection against hazardous materials. Such suits are often combined with self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) to ensure a supply of breathable air. Suits are used by firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, researchers, personnel responding to toxic spills, specialists cleaning up contaminated facilities, and workers in toxic environments.

Working in a hazmat suit is very strenuous, as the suits tend to be less flexible than conventional work garments. With the exception of laboratory versions, hazmat suits can be hot and poorly ventilated (if at all). Therefore, use is usually limited to short durations of up to 2 hours, depending on the difficulty of the work. Level A (United States) suits, for example, are limited by their air supply to around 15–20 minutes of very strenuous work (such as a firefighting rescue in a building).

- Dictionary of Homeland Security and Defense, O'Leary, Margaret R.; iUniverse, Inc.
- Hazmat training reveals dangers – The Cincinnati Enquirer

---
Practice OWAD in a conversation:

"Have you noticed the high occurrence of 'HAZMAT SUITS' in recent media texts?"