Practical on-site measurement of heat strain with the use of a perceptual strain index

Chan, Albert P.C.; Yang, Yang

doi:10.1007/s00420-015-1073-7

Cited by 20 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Most of the construction activities observed were judged to require moderate or high workloads according to the reference table in the ACGIH guidelines (ACGIH, 2009). This is consistent with what has been perceived and described by construction workers (Chan and Yang, 2016; Venugopal et al , 2016) and confirmed by observation and measurement (Abdelhamid and Everett, 2002; Maiti, 2008; Rowlinson and Jia, 2014; Chinnadurai and Venugopal, 2016; Meade et al , 2016; Roja et al , 2016). Workers were determined to work far beyond the time allowed by the ACGIH TLV throughout their work shift, particularly outdoors and when performing heavy work activities indoors.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Assessment of Heat Stress Exposure among Construction Workers in the Hot Desert Climate of Saudi Arabia

Al-Bouwarthan

Quinn

Kriebel

et al. 2019

Annals of Work Exposures and Health

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Objectives Excessive heat exposure poses significant risks to workers in hot climates. This study assessed the intensity and duration of heat stress exposure among workers performing residential construction in southeastern Saudi Arabia (SA) during the summer, June–September 2016. Objectives were to: identify work factors related to heat stress exposure; measure environmental heat exposure at the construction sites; assess the heat stress risk among workers using the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index; and determine if temperature-humidity indices can be appropriate alternatives to WBGT for managing heat stress risk at the construction sites. Methods Worksite walkthrough surveys and environmental monitoring were performed, indoors and outdoors, at 10 construction sites in Al-Ahsa Province. A heat stress exposure assessment was conducted according to the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH®) guidelines, which uses the WBGT index. WBGT measurements from two instruments were compared. Alternative heat stress indices were compared to the WBGT: the heat index (HI) and humidex (HD) index. Results Construction workers were exposed to excessive heat stress, indoors and outdoors over a large part of the work day. Complying with a midday outdoor work ban (12–3 p.m.) was not effective in reducing heat stress risk. The highest intensity of exposure was outdoors from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.; a period identified with the highest hourly mean WBGT values (31–33°C) and the least allowable working time according to ACGIH® guidelines. Comparison of the alternative indices showed that the HI is more reliable than the HD as a surrogate for the WBGT index in the climate studied. Conclusion The extreme heat exposure represents a serious risk. The severity of heat stress and its impact are projected to increase due to climate change, emphasizing the need for immediate improvement of the current required protective measures and the development of occupational heat stress exposure guidelines in SA.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Assessment of Heat Stress Exposure among Construction Workers in the Hot Desert Climate of Saudi Arabia

Al-Bouwarthan

Quinn

Kriebel

et al. 2019

Annals of Work Exposures and Health

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“…Therefore, even if we consider these possible biases, we can still conclude that climate-change mitigation is indispensable for minimizing the climate-change impacts, regardless of the implementation of working time shift. Moreover, a larger portion of economic loss is caused by the construction sector (Figure 6b), and the current working time in the construction sector is not as early as that of the agricultural sector (Bates et al, 2010;Bodin et al, 2016;Chan & Yang, 2016;Chan et al, 2017;Crowe et al, 2010Crowe et al, , 2013Delgado Cortez, 2009;Hassan et al, 2017;Inaba & Mirbod, 2007;Ioannou et al, 2017;Maiti, 2008;Meade et al, 2017Meade et al, , 2015Miller et al, 2011;Sahu et al, 2013;Vatani et al, 2016, summarized in Table S4). In the sensitivity analysis, up to 3 hr of shift was assumed during the base period for the construction sector as well as the agricultural sectors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limited Role of Working Time Shift in Offsetting the Increasing Occupational‐Health Cost of Heat Exposure

et al. 2018

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Climate change increases workers' exposure to heat stress. To prevent heat-related illnesses, according to occupational-health recommendations, labor capacity must be reduced. However, this preventive measure is expected to be costly, and the costs are likely to rise as the scale and scope of climate change impacts increase over time. Shifting the start of the working day to earlier in the morning could be an effective adaptation measure for avoiding the impacts of labor capacity reduction. However, the plausibility and efficacy of such an intervention have never been quantitatively assessed. Here we investigate whether working time shifts can offset the economic impacts of labor capacity reduction due to climate change. Incorporating a temporally (1 hr) and spatially (0.5°× 0.5°) high-resolution heat exposure index into an integrated assessment model, we calculated the working time shift necessary to offset labor capacity reduction and economic loss under hypothetical with-and without-realistic-adaptation scenarios. The results of a normative scenario analysis indicated that a global average shift of 5.7 (4.0-6.1) hours is required, assuming extreme climate conditions in the 2090s. Although a realistic (<3 hr) shift nearly halves the economic cost, a substantial cost corresponding to 1.6% (1.0-2.4%) of global total gross domestic product is expected to remain. In contrast, if stringent climate-change mitigation is achieved, a realistic shift limits the remaining cost to 0.14% (0.12-0.47%) of global total gross domestic product. Although shifting working time is shown to be effective as an adaptation measure, climate-change mitigation remains indispensable to minimize the impact.Plain Language Summary Outdoor workers are exposed to excessive heat stress particularly in hot seasons and its impact is expected to increase as a result of climate change. This will reduce the capability of labor and eventually cause economic loss. Shifting working time to earlier morning, when it is cooler than during midday, can be an effective way to reduce the effect of heat stress. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness and plausibility of a working time shift as an adaptation measure to climate change. Although a working time shift was shown to be effective to reduce the effect of heat stress, the required amount of shift was beyond the realistic range unless stringent climate-change mitigation was achieved. If society tries to avoid the economic impacts of climate change on outdoor labor only by working time shifts, outdoor workers in many regions will need to start working well before dawn. Climate-change mitigation and other adaptation measures (e.g., mechanization of work, body cooling, etc.) are also inevitable to minimize the impact of climate change.

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“…We have previously shown that the PeSI shares a moderate relationship (r = 0.77; p < 0.001) with the PSI when wearing heavy (~34 kg) personal protective clothing across a range of environments and metabolic workloads [7]. Several other studies have demonstrated the ability of the userfriendly PeSI to predict physiological strain across clothing types [6,[8][9][10], operational scenarios [8,9,11] and in the field [10,12]. Further, the PeSI has shown the capacity to differentiate strain between activity [8] and fitness [6] levels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived exertion is as effective as the perceptual strain index in predicting physiological strain when wearing personal protective clothing

Borg

Costello

Bach

et al. 2017

Physiology & Behavior

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Modifying the PeSI did not improve the subjective prediction of physiological strain. However, RPE provided an equally accurate prediction of physiological strain, particularly when high-to-very high levels of strain were observed. Therefore, given its predictive performance and user-friendliness, the evidence suggests that RPE in isolation is a practical and cost-effective tool able to estimate physiological strain during exertional-heat stress under these work conditions.

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Practical on-site measurement of heat strain with the use of a perceptual strain index

Abstract: The PeSI is a simple, robust, reliable, and user-friendly tool for heat strain assessment in occupational settings. The perceptual strain zone will provide practical guidelines for on-site heat strain monitoring for construction workers.

Cited by 20 publications

References 32 publications

Assessment of Heat Stress Exposure among Construction Workers in the Hot Desert Climate of Saudi Arabia

Assessment of Heat Stress Exposure among Construction Workers in the Hot Desert Climate of Saudi Arabia

Limited Role of Working Time Shift in Offsetting the Increasing Occupational‐Health Cost of Heat Exposure

Perceived exertion is as effective as the perceptual strain index in predicting physiological strain when wearing personal protective clothing

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