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The thermal environment
Published in Sue Reed, Dino Pisaniello, Geza Benke, Kerrie Burton, Principles of Occupational Health & Hygiene, 2020
The WBGT index provides the most common, convenient measure for heat stress evaluations. To determine WBGT, measurements are needed of the following: dry bulb air temperaturewet bulb air temperatureradiant globe temperature. Commercial instrumentation (see Figure 14.1) is readily accessible to measure WBGT and can be either purchased or hired from a number of providers. This instrument measures the globe temperature, the natural wet bulb and a shielded dry bulb air temperature, which are utilised for WBGT measurements. Modern instruments will automatically do the indoor/outdoor calculations for the user.
The impact of season on heart rate variability and workload of workers in young tree tending operations of a Larix kaempferi (Lamb.) Carr. stand: a preliminary study
Published in International Journal of Forest Engineering, 2022
Eunjai Lee, Kigwang Baek, Sangtae Lee, Min-Jae Cho, Yun-Sung Choi, Koo-Hyun Cho
Exposure to high temperatures is a crucial occupational health and safety concern. Hot weather and high heat stress have a direct significant correlation with physiological variables such as heart rate (Hansen and Sato 2016; Afshari and Shirali 2019). For example, if WBGT is greater than 25°C, the workers could be exposed extreme heat stress associated with hazardous levels of workplace (U.S. Department of Labor 2021). The increase in HRwork, core body temperature, and sweat losses caused by heat exposure have exacerbated the impact of occupational accidents (Eguchi et al. 2011; Krishnan et al. 2017). HRwork and RHR can increase if the young tree tending operation is completely done in the summer season. In addition, the level of physical workload may be significantly higher in July than in April due to workers’ heat exposure. As a result, heat exposure seems to have a much higher risk although there is not enough data to determine the risk of these tasks at high temperatures. Further, the workers may adjust the work pace including rest cycles to avoid strenuous workload and heat stress.
The effects of combined exposure to noise and heat on human salivary cortisol and blood pressure
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2021
Mohammad Javad Jafari, Reza Khosrowabadi, Soheila Khodakarim, Fariba Khodagholi, Farough Mohammadian
Temperatures were homogeneous in the laboratory space, therefore, measurements were only carried out at a waist height of 0.6 m (for sitting subjects). An air-conditioning system equipped with a humidifier was used to control the WBGT and relative humidity at desired levels. The heart rate and blood pressure were measured using a Beurer BM58 (Beurer, Germany) with an accuracy of 1 mmHg. Smoking, eating or drinking was not permitted 30 min prior to testing and subjects were told not to brush their teeth 1 h before testing. Saliva samples were collected by expelling saliva into labeled tubes. Each subject provided an average of 2 ml of saliva per tube. All samples were extracted from 8:00 to 11:00. The quantitative determination of the free cortisol concentration present in the saliva sample was standardized using the Human Salivary Cortisol ELISA Kit (Cat. No. ZB-S11003-H9648; ZellBio, Germany) with a range of 0–300 ng/ml and a 1-ng/ml limit of detection (LOD).
Actual and simulated weather data to evaluate wet bulb globe temperature and heat index as alerts for occupational heat-related illness
Published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2019
Courtney E. Morris, Richard G. Gonzales, Michael J. Hodgson, Aaron W. Tustin
Wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) was developed in the 1950s as part of a program to manage heat stress in U.S. Marine Corps trainees. WBGT is a weighted average of dry bulb (ambient) temperature, natural wet bulb temperature, and globe temperature. WBGT instruments respond to all four environmental heat determinants—air temperature, relative humidity, air movement, and radiant heat (e.g., sunlight)—to which humans are exposed. For this reason, in the early 1970s, ACGIH and NIOSH began advocating the use of WBGT as part of occupational heat stress control programs.[2,7] Since then, despite some limitations,[8] WBGT has remained the preferred environmental heat metric for HRI prevention at both civilian and military workplaces.[1,2,9]