Evaluating Heat Stress in Occupational Setting with No Established Safety Standards Using Collective Data from...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Occupational Safety
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Increasing exposure to extreme heat in living and work environments.
• Conventional heat stress assessments may be inadequate for extreme conditions.
• Need for improved methods to evaluate heat stress in occupational settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel method for evaluating environmental heat stress using collective wearable biosensor data.
• To introduce the heart rate response intercept as a heat stress index.
• To examine the influence of ambient temperature, aging, and obesity on heat stress.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing collective heart rate and physical activity data from wearable biosensors in a group of workers.
• Defining and applying the heart rate response intercept to quantify heat stress.
• Analyzing the impact of environmental and individual factors on the heat stress index.

Main Results:

• Collective biosensor data effectively assesses environmental heat stress.
• The heart rate response intercept quantifies heat stress under various conditions.
• Obesity was identified as a significant factor contributing to high heat stress in workers.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method offers a novel approach to assessing occupational heat stress.
• The heart rate response intercept is a valuable metric for heat stress evaluation.
• Findings highlight the need to address heat stress in obese workers and improve countermeasures.