Essay On Heat Stress

1280 Words3 Pages

Literature Review: In order to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of heat stress it is required that we review the science behind the reaction of body to thermal stress, the various methods for measurement of stress and various methodologies used to mitigate this problem.
The review of literature shall thus provide an overview of knowledge of core body temperature, its regulation, heat stress, Heat stress indices and holistic approach to manage the hazard of heat stress. The aim of the review is to identify the direction of research and the methodologies employed to achieve the project aims.
The review itself is categorized under following sections:
• Section-2: Humans & their behavior in thermal environment
• Section-3: Factors that affect heat stress
• Section-4: Heat Stress Indices (globally used)
• Section-5: Holistic approach to heat stress

Section-2: Humans and Thermal Environment
This section discusses the relationship between humans and thermal environments and various factors that can affect this relationship
2.1 The concept and importance for “CORE BODY TEMPERATURE”
In a neutral climate, when at rest, the human body regulates its temperature to 37oC. The mean temperature when measured over a population of in the morning after bed rest is around 36.7oC with a standard deviation of 0.35oC (based on data of Wenzel and Piekarski (1984)). The temperature increases during the day by about 0.80C, peaking in the late evening and then declining again in early morning due to circadian rhythm.
This deep body temperature required to be maintained by the humans is about 370C. The maintenance of this temperature is by response of body to the thermal environment. These responses could be psychological, phy...

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...renuous physical work have high potential of inducing heat stress in employees engaged in such operations. Additionally work that requires workers to wear semi-permeable or impermeable protective clothing is also likely to cause heat stress amongst exposed workers.

2.6 Metabolic Rate
Heat is produced in proportion to the work rate. This deep body temperature is more closely related to metabolic rate than to the rate at which body heat had to be eliminated (Nielsen, 1967). If we look at the criteria of heat stress documents e.g. ISO 7243, ISO 7933 and NIOSH 1986 indicate that the increased work-rate could be compensated for by reduction in environmental heat load. The standard ISO 8996 (2004) outlines the ways to determine the metabolic heat produced by the body when carrying out activities. The standard can thus be applied to support the standard ISO 7243 and 7933.

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