Workplace heat stress, health and productivity
(2009) In Global Health Action 2. p.1-6- Abstract
- Background: Global climate change is already increasing the average temperature and direct heat exposure in many places around the world. Objectives: To assess the potential impact on occupational health and work capacity for people exposed at work to increasing heat due to climate change.
Design: A brief review of basic thermal physiology mechanisms, occupational heat exposure guidelines and heat exposure changes in selected cities. Results: In countries with very hot seasons, workers are already affected by working environments hotter than that with which human physiological mechanisms can cope. To protect workers from excessive heat, a number of heat exposure indices have been developed. One that is commonly used in... (More) - Background: Global climate change is already increasing the average temperature and direct heat exposure in many places around the world. Objectives: To assess the potential impact on occupational health and work capacity for people exposed at work to increasing heat due to climate change.
Design: A brief review of basic thermal physiology mechanisms, occupational heat exposure guidelines and heat exposure changes in selected cities. Results: In countries with very hot seasons, workers are already affected by working environments hotter than that with which human physiological mechanisms can cope. To protect workers from excessive heat, a number of heat exposure indices have been developed. One that is commonly used in occupational health is the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT). We use WBGT to illustrate assessing the proportion of a working hour during which a worker can sustain work and the proportion of that same working hour that (s)he needs to rest to cool the body down and maintain core body temperature below 388C. Using this proportion a ‘work capacity’ estimate was calculated for selected heat exposure levels and work intensity levels. The work capacity rapidly reduces as the WBGT exceeds 26 (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1969472
- author
- Kjellström, Tord ; Holmér, Ingvar LU and Bruno, Lemke
- organization
- publishing date
- 2009
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- climate change, work, heat, occupational health, productivity
- in
- Global Health Action
- volume
- 2
- pages
- 1 - 6
- publisher
- Co-Action Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:74949122039
- ISSN
- 1654-9880
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- bb906066-75e5-4411-9016-9da882828119 (old id 1969472)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 13:38:53
- date last changed
- 2022-04-24 03:26:43
@article{bb906066-75e5-4411-9016-9da882828119,
abstract = {{Background: Global climate change is already increasing the average temperature and direct heat exposure in many places around the world. Objectives: To assess the potential impact on occupational health and work capacity for people exposed at work to increasing heat due to climate change.<br/><br>
Design: A brief review of basic thermal physiology mechanisms, occupational heat exposure guidelines and heat exposure changes in selected cities. Results: In countries with very hot seasons, workers are already affected by working environments hotter than that with which human physiological mechanisms can cope. To protect workers from excessive heat, a number of heat exposure indices have been developed. One that is commonly used in occupational health is the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT). We use WBGT to illustrate assessing the proportion of a working hour during which a worker can sustain work and the proportion of that same working hour that (s)he needs to rest to cool the body down and maintain core body temperature below 388C. Using this proportion a ‘work capacity’ estimate was calculated for selected heat exposure levels and work intensity levels. The work capacity rapidly reduces as the WBGT exceeds 26}},
author = {{Kjellström, Tord and Holmér, Ingvar and Bruno, Lemke}},
issn = {{1654-9880}},
keywords = {{climate change; work; heat; occupational health; productivity}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{1--6}},
publisher = {{Co-Action Publishing}},
series = {{Global Health Action}},
title = {{Workplace heat stress, health and productivity}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/6171559/1969476.webarchive}},
volume = {{2}},
year = {{2009}},
}