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Thermoregulatory response of women to intermittent work in the heat.

Drinkwater-BL; Horvath-SM

NIOSH 1981 Sep; :1-64

00179877

A group of 21 nonheat acclimatized women were exposed to heat stress to investigate physiological responses to heat exposure on the job. When the women worked in the heat and rested in a cool environment, the physiological response was similar to that of steady state protocol at the same corrected effective temperature (CET), supporting the hypothesis that thermoregulatory response to intermittent work is an integration of the time weighted metabolic requirements and environmental condition. In studies to extend the concept of the prescriptive zone to intermittent work in varying environments, it was determined that plotting physiological responses to intermittent work in nine different environments versus time weighted CETs produced responses which were the same as those for steady state work at the same CET. Data indicated that the prescriptive zone idea may be useful for intermittent work at time weighted mean CETs below 18 degrees CET. The prescriptive zone concept appeared applicable to women, but its usefulness would be improved by calculating work in reference to worker fitness level or body size. In experiments to quantify differences in physiological response to various combinations of ambient temperature and vapor pressure which have equivalent wet bulb globe temperature and CET values, CET's did not produce equivalent physiological responses when radiant heat load varied. The difference in heat strain was most obvious above the upper limit of prescriptive zone, during heavy work, and with minimal clothing.

NIOSH-Grant; Sex-factors; Cardiovascular-system; Cardiovascular-function; Thermoregulation; Physiological-stress; Heat-tolerance; Pulmonary-function-tests

None University of California Inst of Environmental Stress Santa Barbara, Calif 93106

19810930

Final Grant Report

128680

Grant

1981

PB88-221288

A05

Grant-Number-R01-OH-00858

OEP

Institute of Environmental Stress, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, Terminal Progress Report, NIOSH Grant No. R01-OH-00858, 64 pages, 26 references

CA

University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California