Extreme heat events are increasing in frequency, severity, and duration. It is well known that heat stress can have a negative impact on occupational health and productivity, particularly during ...physical work. However, there are no up-to-date reviews on how vulnerability to heat changes as a function of individual characteristics in relation to the risk of hyperthermia and work capacity loss. The objective of this narrative review is to examine the role of individual characteristics on the human heat stress response, specifically in relation to hyperthermia risk and productivity loss in hot workplaces. Finally, we aim to generate practical guidance for industrial hygienists considering our findings. Factors included in the analysis were body mass, body surface area to mass ratio, body fat, aerobic fitness and training, heat adaptation, aging, sex, and chronic health conditions.
We found the relevance of any factor to be dynamic, based on the work-type (fixed pace or relative to fitness level), work intensity (low, moderate, or heavy work), climate type (humidity, clothing vapor resistance), and variable of interest (risk of hyperthermia or likelihood of productivity loss). Heat adaptation, high aerobic fitness, and having a large body mass are the most protective factors during heat exposure. Primary detrimental factors include low fitness, low body mass, and lack of heat adaptation. Aging beyond 50 years, being female, and diabetes are less impactful negative factors, since their independent effect is quite small in well matched participants. Skin surface area to mass ratio, body composition, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease are not strong independent predictors of the heat stress response.
Understanding how individual factors impact responses to heat stress is necessary for the prediction of heat wave impacts on occupational health and work capacity. The recommendations provided in this report could be utilized to help curtail hyperthermia risk and productivity losses induced by heat.
Although the ability to sense skin wetness and humidity is critical for behavioral and autonomic adaptations, humans are not provided with specific skin receptors for sensing wetness. It has been ...proposed that we "learn" to perceive the wetness experienced when the skin is in contact with a wet surface or when sweat is produced through a multisensory integration of thermal and tactile inputs generated by the interaction between skin and moisture. However, the individual roles of thermal and tactile cues and how these are integrated peripherally and centrally by our nervous system is still poorly understood. Here we tested the hypothesis that the central integration of coldness and mechanosensation, as subserved by peripheral A-nerve afferents, might be the primary neural process underpinning human wetness sensitivity. During a quantitative sensory test, we found that individuals perceived warm-wet and neutral-wet stimuli as significantly less wet than cold-wet stimuli, although these were characterized by the same moisture content. Also, when cutaneous cold and tactile sensitivity was diminished by a selective reduction in the activity of A-nerve afferents, wetness perception was significantly reduced. Based on a concept of perceptual learning and Bayesian perceptual inference, we developed the first neurophysiological model of cutaneous wetness sensitivity centered on the multisensory integration of cold-sensitive and mechanosensitive skin afferents. Our results provide evidence for the existence of a specific information processing model that underpins the neural representation of a typical wet stimulus. These findings contribute to explaining how humans sense warm, neutral, and cold skin wetness.
Purpose
Given the pressing impact of global warming and its detrimental effect on the health of older populations, understanding age-related changes in thermoregulatory function is essential. Age ...differences in regional sweat distribution have been observed previously, but given the typically small measurement areas assessed, the development of whole body sweat maps for older individuals is required. Therefore, this study investigated age-related differences in regional sweat distribution in a hot environment (32 °C/50%RH) in young and older adults, using a body mapping approach.
Methods
Technical absorbent pads were applied to the skin of 14 young (age 24 ± 2 years) and 14 older (68 ± 5 years) males to measure regional sweat rate (RSR) at rest (30 min) and during exercise (30 min), at a fixed heat production (200 W m
−2
). Gastrointestinal (
T
gi
) and skin temperature (
T
sk
), heart rate, thermal sensation, and thermal comfort were also measured.
Results
Whole body sweat maps showed that despite equal heat production, healthy older males had significantly lower gross sweat loss (GSL) than the young and significantly lower RSR at almost all body regions at rest and at the hands, legs, ankles, and feet during exercise. The lower sweat loss in the older group coincided with a greater increase in
T
gi
and a consistently higher
T
sk
at the legs, despite subjectively feeling slightly cooler than younger individuals.
Conclusion
These findings support the evidence of age-related deterioration in both autonomic and subjective responses in the heat and highlight the lower extremities as the most affected body region.
This study investigated causative factors behind the expression of different interaction types during exposure to multistressor environments. Neuromuscular fatigue rates and time to exhaustion (TTE) ...were investigated in active men (n = 9) exposed to three climates 5 °C, 50% relative humidity (rh); 23 °C, 50% rh; and 42 °C, 70% rh at two inspired oxygen fractions (0.209 and 0.125 FiO2; equivalent attitude = 4,100 m). After a 40-min rest in the three climatic conditions, participants performed constant-workload (high intensity) knee extension exercise until exhaustion, with brief assessments of neuromuscular function every 110 s. Independent exposure to cold, heat, and hypoxia significantly (P < 0.01) reduced TTE from thermoneutral normoxia (reductions of 190, 405, and 505 s from 915 s, respectively). The TTE decrease was consistent with a faster rate of peripheral fatigue development (P < 0.01) compared with thermoneutral normoxia (increase of 1.6, 3.1, and 4.9%/min from 4.1%/min, respectively). Combined exposure to hypoxic-cold resulted in an even greater TTE reduction (-589 s), likely due to an increase in the rate of peripheral fatigue development (increased by 7.6%/min), but this was without significant interaction between stressors (P > 0.198). In contrast, combined exposure to hypoxic heat reduced TTE by 609 s, showing a significant antagonistic interaction (P = 0.003) similarly supported by an increased rate of peripheral fatigue development (which increased by 8.3%/min). A small decline (<0.4%/min) in voluntary muscle activation was observed only in thermoneutral normoxia. In conclusion, interaction type is influenced by the impact magnitude of the effect of the individual stressors' effect on exercise capacity, whereby the greater the effect of stressors, the greater the probability that one stressor will be abolished by the other. This indicates that humans respond to severe and simultaneous physiological strains on the basis of a worst-strain-takes-precedence principle.
This study investigated the influence of whole body cooling on local thermal sensitivity to warm (40°C) and cold (20°C) stimuli in 10 young (age: 24 ± 2 yrs) and 10 older males (age: 69 ± 4 yrs).
...Local warm and cold sensitivity was assessed at eight body regions using a 25 cm2 pressure controlled thermal probe after 40 min of whole body exposure to a thermoneutral (NEUT: 25°C/40% RH) and a cold (COLD: 12°C/50% RH) environment. Gastrointestinal temperature (Tgi), mean and local skin temperature, heart rate, whole body thermal sensation and comfort, and skin blood flow were also measured.
Whole body cooling blunted local cold sensitivity but warm sensitivity was maintained in both age groups. Furthermore, a significant age-related decline (from young to older group) in sensitivity to a warm stimulus was observed in both NEUT and COLD conditions. Older males also had a greater ΔTgi compared to the young but had similar thermal sensation and comfort responses.
The observed interaction effect of local cold stimulation and whole body cooling may be related to both stimuli triggering similar TRP channels, whereas the lack of interaction between local warm stimuli and whole body cooling may be related to these two stimuli triggering different TRP channels. The findings reiterate the potential thermoregulatory risks (e.g. cold injury and hypothermia) associated with ageing, even with such short exposure times.
•During body cooling, cold sensitivity is blunted but warm sensitivity is maintained.•Warm and cold sensitivity differences may relate to activation of different TRP channels.•Age-related declines in warm sensitivity are evident in neutral and cold conditions.•Older males have impaired cold defence mechanisms during cold exposure.•Ageing is associated with increasing thermoregulatory risk with short duration cold exposure.
High workplace temperatures negatively impact physical work capacity (PWC). Although PWC loss models with heat based on 1-h exposures are available, it is unclear if further adjustments are required ...to accommodate repeated work/rest cycles over the course of a full work shift. Therefore, we examined the impact of heat stress exposure on human PWC during a simulated work shift consisting of six 1-h work-rest cycles. Nine healthy males completed six 50-min work bouts, separated by 10-min rest intervals and an extended lunch break, on four separate occasions: once in a cool environment (15 °C/50% RH) and in three different air temperature and relative humidity combinations (moderate, 35 °C/50% RH; hot, 40 °C/50% RH; and very hot, 40 °C/70%). To mimic moderate to heavy workload, work was performed on a treadmill at a fixed heart rate of 130 beats·min
−1
. During each work bout, PWC was quantified as the kilojoules expended above resting levels. Over the shift, work output per cycle decreased, even in the cool climate, with the biggest decrement after the lunch break and meal consumption. Expressing PWC relative to that achieved in the cool environment for the same work duration, there was an additional 5(± 4)%, 7(± 6)%, and 16(± 7)% decrease in PWC when work was performed across a full work shift for the moderate, hot, and very hot condition respectively, compared with 1-h projections. Empirical models to predict PWC based on the level of heat stress (Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature, Universal Thermal Climate Index, Psychrometric Wet-Bulb Temperature, Humidex, and Heat Index) and the number of work cycles performed are presented.
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between simulated solar radiation and thermal comfort. Three studies investigated the effects of (1) the intensity of direct simulated solar ...radiation, (2) spectral content of simulated solar radiation and (3) glazing type on human thermal sensation responses. Eight male subjects were exposed in each of the three studies. In Study 1, subjects were exposed to four levels of simulated solar radiation: 0, 200, 400 and 600 Wm-². In Study 2, subjects were exposed to simulated solar radiation with four different spectral contents, each with a total intensity of 400 Wm-² on the subject. In Study 3, subjects were exposed through glass to radiation caused by 1,000 Wm-² of simulated solar radiation on the exterior surface of four different glazing types. The environment was otherwise thermally neutral where there was no direct radiation, predicted mean vote (PMV)=0±0.5, International Standards Organisation (ISO) standard 7730. Ratings of thermal sensation, comfort, stickiness and preference and measures of mean skin temperature (tsk) were taken. Increase in the total intensity of simulated solar radiation rather than the specific wavelength of the radiation is the critical factor affecting thermal comfort. Thermal sensation votes showed that there was a sensation scale increase of 1 scale unit for each increase of direct radiation of around 200 Wm-². The specific spectral content of the radiation has no direct effect on thermal sensation. The results contribute to models for determining the effects of solar radiation on thermal comfort in vehicles, buildings and outdoors.
Sensing skin wetness is linked to inputs arising from cutaneous cold-sensitive afferents. As thermosensitivity to cold varies significantly across the torso, we investigated whether similar regional ...differences in wetness perception exist. We also investigated the regional differences in thermal pleasantness and whether these sensory patterns are influenced by ambient temperature. Sixteen males (20 ± 2 yr) underwent a quantitative sensory test under thermo-neutral air temperature (Tair) = 22°C; relative humidity (RH) = 50% and warm conditions (Tair = 33°C; RH = 50%). Twelve regions of the torso were stimulated with a dry thermal probe (25 cm(2)) with a temperature of 15°C below local skin temperature (Tsk). Variations in Tsk, thermal, wetness, and pleasantness sensations were recorded. As a result of the same cold-dry stimulus, the skin-cooling response varied significantly by location (P = 0.003). The lateral chest showed the greatest cooling (-5 ± 0.4°C), whereas the lower back showed the smallest (-1.9 ± 0.4°C). Thermal sensations varied significantly by location and independently from regional variations in skin cooling with colder sensations reported on the lateral abdomen and lower back. Similarly, the frequency of perceived skin wetness was significantly greater on the lateral and lower back as opposed to the medial chest. Overall wetness perception was slightly higher under warm conditions. Significantly more unpleasant sensations were recorded when the lateral abdomen and lateral and lower back were stimulated. We conclude that humans present regional differences in skin wetness perception across the torso, with a pattern similar to the regional differences in thermosensitivity to cold. These findings indicate the presence of a heterogeneous distribution of cold-sensitive thermo-afferent information.
•A skin cooling rate threshold for cold stimuli to evoke wetness was identified.•The rate of heat transfer plays a role in characterising the perception of cold stimuli as cold-wet.•Touch might be as ...determinant as temperature inputs in characterising the perception of wetness.
Cold sensations are suggested as the primary inducer of the perception of skin wetness. However, limited data are available on the effects of skin cooling. Hence, we investigated the role of peripheral cold afferents in the perception of wetness. Six cold-dry stimuli (producing skin cooling rates in a range of 0.02–0.41°C/s) were applied on the forearm of 9 female participants. Skin temperature and conductance, thermal and wetness perception were recorded. Five out of 9 participants perceived wetness as a result of cold-dry stimuli with cooling rates in a range of 0.14–0.41°C/s, while 4 did not perceive skin wetness at all. Although skin cooling and cold sensations play a role in evoking the perception of wetness, these are not always of a primary importance and other sensory modalities (i.e. touch and vision), as well as the inter-individual variability in thermal sensitivity, might be equally determinant in characterising this perception.
PDF
