The Thermal Environment

Publisher Summary In determining what protective equipment or safety and health precautions to take in extreme thermal environments, it is useful to classify the factors existing in the environment to which the person affected is most often exposed, including air temperature, radiant temperature, wind velocity, and water vapor pressures. It is possible to minimize the adverse effects of hot environments by allowing workers time to acclimatize to their environment, characterized by an increased sweat output and a lowering of the pulse rate, and internal or deep body temperature in response to thermal stress. The performance of sedentary tasks with their low metabolic heat output should be avoided in low temperatures as it is difficult to provide sufficient thermal insulation. The approach to the thermal problems associated with such industries as farming, dock work, and building in the very hot parts of the world will have to be physiological and behaviorally based, and the work will have to be adapted to the workers and the workers adapted within the limits of their physiology by training, education, and improvements in health standards.