BACKGROUND Heat stress evaluation and timely notification, especially using meteorological data is an important issue attracted attention in recent years. Therefore, this study aimed at answering the following research questions: 1) can enthalpy as a common environmental parameter reported by meteorological agencies be applied accurately for evaluation of thermal condition of outdoor settings, ...

The incidence of heatstroke has been increasing in Japan, and future climate change is likely to increase heatstroke risk. We therefore developed a method to quantify the spatial distribution of outdoor heatstroke risk and predicted future changes in this risk considering the predicted climate change in Sendai, Japan. Heatstroke risk was quantified by assessing hazard, vulnerability and exposur...

Thermal comfort is quantified in 15 regions using the Wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT), examining past and future rates of thresholds exceedance corresponding to moderate, high and extreme heat (28 C, 32 C and 35 C respectively). As recent changes to thermal comfort appear to be dominated by temperature and humidity, a WBGT approximation based only on these is used. A new homogenised dataset f...

This paper presents heat stress Standard ISO 7243, which is based upon the wet bulb globe temperature index (WBGT), and considers its suitability for use worldwide. The origins of the WBGT index are considered and how it is used in ISO 7243 and across the world as a simple index for monitoring and assessing hot environments. The standard (and index) has validity, reliability and usability. It i...

The Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) seems to be still used world widely for the evaluation of heat stress conditions and it is recommended by ISO and American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists as a screening method. Unfortunately, many occupational health practitioners and users appear to be unaware of its limitations. As the ISO 7243 Standard, based on WBGT, is presently under...

The present study aimed to investigate the applicability of Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) as an innovative and science-based index in public health researches, in occupational heat stress assessment. All indoor and outdoor workers (200 people) of Brick industries of Shahroud, Iran participated in the research. First, the environmental variables such as air temperature, wet-bulb tempera...