Chapter 10 - Heat Stress in Industrial Protective Encapsulating Garments

Abstract

Heat stress represents an imbalance between the heat produced by an individual and the heat loss allowed to the environment. There is no single temperature or combination of temperature and humidity at which heat stress can be said to begin. The question of human heat balance can be analyzed by a well-defined heat balance equation. There have been many studies attempting to relate the productivity of a workforce to the environmental heat stress. Most of these have used the effective temperature as an expression of the environmental heat stress, but very few have adequately controlled such key factors as motivation, need, or expectancy. Thus, the results of studies on the effects of heat stress on productivity have varied widely. In many of the heat stress problems that reach litigation, whether to assign cause and effect, or to assess compensation for injury or reduced productivity, lack of any actual on-site measurements of environmental conditions is often a major problem.