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Thermal Stressors
Published in W. David Yates, Safety Professional’s Reference and Study Guide, 2020
Hypothermia is a reduction of the body’s core temperature below its normal (98°F), which results in a progressive deterioration in cerebral, musculoskeletal, and cardiac functions. There are three degrees of hypothermia, which are classified by their degree of severity, which includes: mild, moderate, and severe hypothermia. Mild hypothermia results when the body temperature ranges from 89.6°F to 95°F and is initially characterized by violent shivering followed by virtual cessation of effective muscular activity, disorientation, and disinterest in surroundings. Moderate hypothermia results when the body temperature ranges from 78.8°F to 89.59°F, with cardiac irregularities occurring at approximately 86°F and corneal reflexes absent below 82.4°F. Severe hypothermia occurs at core temperatures of 78.79°F and lower, and with ventricular fibrillation, a paramount risk below 80.6°F. At this temperature, the affected person may appear clinically dead. However, cold injury victims have been successfully resuscitated at core temperatures of 64°F, which created the medical saying, “No one is dead until he/she is warm and dead.”3
Emergency Preparedness and Response
Published in Neil McManus, Safety and Health in Confined Spaces, 2018
Treatment of mild hypothermia involves decreasing heat loss and increasing heat production. The former can be achieved by adding clothing and taking shelter. The latter occurs through exercise and intake of high calorie, rapidly metabolized foods.
Hot and Cold Environments: Temperature Extremes
Published in Martin B., S.Z., of Industrial Hygiene, 2018
If exposed to cold environmental conditions that are severe enough for a sufficient time, hypothermia occurs. Hypothermia is excessive lowering of the core body temperature. It can develop when heat is lost from the body at a rate that is greater than metabolic warming. It can result from exposure to cold air (in the outdoors or in cold storage areas), or immersion in cold water (18°C fora sufficient period can cause hypothermia). Hypothermia has been defined as a core body temperature at or below 35°C; severe hypothermia has been defined as a core body temperature below 33°C.
A mathematical model to study thermoregulation and heat-transfer processes in hypothermic neonates under variable physiological parameters
Published in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 2023
Hypothermia is a decrease in the body core temperature. It has negative effects for both term and preterm neonates. Due to insufficient and premature body defence system, neonates cannot resist hypothermic situation. Term-babies have several protective factors which prevent this abnormal decay in their body temperature. They develop brown fat in the last few weeks of gestation. This brown fat burns in order to produce heat in their bodies. They also have protection of more subcutaneous fat which helps them to insulate from the cold around them. But term-babies are still prone to hypothermia because they cannot shiver, as no neonate is capable of shivering. So term-babies can become hypothermic if they are exposed to too much cold or they are sick. During sickness, their brain does not work properly to regulate the body’s physiological processes. So term-babies become hypothermic without any apparent cause. Moreover, if the neonates are septic, their body temperature is usually low instead of high. Other factors by which they become hypothermic are through the problems with their brain such as asphyxia or meningitis and exposure to cold. When the baby is severely septic, the temperature can fluctuate up and down (see Guyton 2000; Keener and Sneyd 2009).
Changes in extreme events and the potential impacts on human health
Published in Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2018
Jesse E. Bell, Claudia Langford Brown, Kathryn Conlon, Stephanie Herring, Kenneth E. Kunkel, Jay Lawrimore, George Luber, Carl Schreck, Adam Smith, Christopher Uejio
Although unusually high temperatures in recent decades have garnered much attention, cold temperatures, while anticipated to be fewer in the future, can cause a substantial health burden. A recent study identified that deaths due to cold accounted for the majority of temperature-related mortality (Gasparrini et al. 2015). When a person experiences cold temperatures, that person’s ability to thermoregulate is impaired, leading to reduced core temperatures (e.g., hypothermia). In response, the body redistributes heat, eventually at the expense of cardiac and cerebrovascular functions. Impacts of exposure to cold temperatures can range from frostbite, to hypothermia, cardiac arrhythmias, cardiac arrest, and loss of cerebral blood flow (Capon, Demeurisse, and Zheng 1992; Lloyd 1991). Like heat vulnerability, cold-related health impacts are driven by age, socioeconomic status, and where one lives (Anderson and Bell 2009; Gasparrini et al. 2015). Heat-related health impacts are expected to be greater than the reduction in cold-related health impacts as climate change continues in the future (Sarofim et al. 2016).
Warming of blood and intravenous fluids using low-power infra-red light-emitting diodes
Published in Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology, 2021
Sarath S. Nair, V. Sreedevi, D. S. Nagesh
Blood is usually stored in the temperature range of 1–6 °C in blood banks [1]. This allows prolonged storage time, delays the metabolic deterioration of red blood cells and inhibits the growth of any pathogens. Blood components other than RBCs and WBCs such as plasma and cryoprecipitate are frozen and platelets are kept at room temperature. Purified derivatives such as albumin or immunoglobulin are stored as specified by the manufacturer. However, prior to transfusion, the cold blood components need to be warmed to core body temperature to avoid any possible harmful effects of hypothermia. Hypothermia is defined as a core body temperature below 35 °C which may lead to cardiac arrhythmia, vasoconstriction, and dehydration, lack of oxygen to tissue, impaired drug metabolism, impaired immune function, and surgical wound infection [2]. More than 42% of inpatients are subjected to the risk of hypothermia and the mortality rates of these trauma patients are higher than non-hypothermic patients [3]. Nonetheless, hypothermia commonly develops in patients during anaesthesia and surgery because anaesthetics inhibit thermoregulation and patients are exposed to a cold operating-room environment [4–6]. In operations involving open body cavities, there may be an even greater loss of heat [7]. In blood transfusion context; hypothermia is occurred among different types of patients such asPatients urgently requiring large amount of blood or IV fluidsTrauma patients under anaesthesia