Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Nov 11:2.
doi: 10.3402/gha.v2i0.2057.

Maintaining health, comfort and productivity in heat waves

Ken Parsons  1
Affiliations

Maintaining health, comfort and productivity in heat waves

Ken Parsons. Glob Health Action. .

Abstract

Background: The aim of this paper is to summarise what is known about human response to heat and to use this knowledge to provide guidance on how to maintain the health, comfort and performance of people in heat waves.

Design: The use of power and especially water are critical in providing cooling. A practical method of cooling people in a water bath is described. A warm bath slowly cooled will provide effective cooling but not thermal trauma.

Result: It is concluded that for sedentary and light activities, it is not necessary to cool offices or homes below 25 degrees C for thermal comfort.

Conclusion: To compare the costs due to loss of productivity caused by a heat wave, with the cost of taking action, more research is needed into the relationship between levels of heat stress and how much distraction and 'time off task' it causes.

Keywords: comfort; health; heat physiology; heat waves; productivity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

<i>Fig. 1</i>.
Fig. 1.
Causes of heat stroke (from Ref. (5))
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Parsons K. Human thermal environments. London: Taylor & Francis; 2003.
    1. NIOSH. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 86–113. Washington, DC: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; 1986. Occupational exposure to hot environments.
    1. Kerslake D Mck. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1972. The stress of hot environments. - PubMed
    1. Leithead CS, Lind AR. Heat stress and heat disorders. London: Cassell; 1964.
    1. Belding HS. The search for a universal heat stress index. In: Hardy JD, Thomas CC, editors. Physiological and behavioural temperature regulation. IL: Springfield; 1970.

LinkOut - more resources