Abstract
Outdoor workers are particularly exposed to climate conditions, and in particular, the increase of environmental temperature directly affects their health and productivity. For these reasons, in recent years, heat-health warning systems have been developed for workers generally using heat stress indicators obtained by the combination of meteorological parameters to describe the thermal stress induced by the outdoor environment on the human body. There are several studies on the verification of the parameters predicted by meteorological models, but very few relating to the validation of heat stress indicators. This study aims to verify the performance of two limited area models, with different spatial resolution, potentially applicable in the occupational heat health warning system developed within the WORKLIMATE project for the Italian territory. A comparison between the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature predicted by the models and that obtained by data from 28 weather stations was carried out over about three summer seasons in different daily time slots, using the most common skill of performance. The two meteorological models were overall comparable for much of the Italian explored territory, while major limits have emerged in areas with complex topography. This study demonstrated the applicability of limited area models in occupational heat health warning systems.
Highlights
between 63% (MOL-E) and 44% (BOL), MOL-E, and MOL-G showed a similar probability of detection of the RL1 (POD1) that represents the most frequent risk level observed and predicted
There are very few examples of personalized occupational heat health warning systems, and this study lays the foundations for the creation of a web forecasting platform and a mobile web app with customized high-resolution heat-stress-risk forecasts on the basis of worker’s characteristics, work effort, and work environment
These products are developed as part of the Worklimate project and are based on a heat stress indicator (WBGT) widely used internationally for the assessment of severe hot environments
Summary
Climate change projections indicate that most people who inhabit our planet will experience more recurrent natural hazards [1], and intense and longer-lasting heatwave periods over the coming decades [2]. The world of work, especially that carried out outdoors, is intimately connected with the natural environment and climate conditions. The increase of environmental temperature directly affects the occupational sector in a generally negative way [3,4]. The heat stress phenomenon, that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) defines as the sum of the heat generated in the body (metabolic heat) plus the heat gained from the environment minus
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