Three main factors that influence heat stress are clothing, work demands and environmental conditions. Gender may also influence the amount of heat stress an individual can tolerate. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of gender in heat stress limits (critical WBGT) and heat strain (heart rate and core temperature). The null hypothesis was that there was no gender difference among critical WBGT, heart rate and core temperature. Fifteen subjects (11 men and 4 women) wore five different clothing ensembles (cotton work clothes, cotton coveralls, particle barrier Tyvek, water-barrier/vapor permeable NexGen LS417, and vapor barrier Tychem QC made by Dupont) at three levels of metabolic rate (115, 175 and 250 W m-2). A treadmill was used to set the metabolic workload. A climatic chamber was used to control the environmental conditions. The participants continued to walk on the treadmill until their core temperature (Tre) reached a steady state. Then the air temperature and humidity were slowly increased. The point at which the core temperature increased steadily was defined as the inflection point. Environmental data as well as core temperature and heart rate were recorded at five minute intervals. The critical conditions were noted at five minutes before the inflection point. Metabolic rate, critical WBGT, core temperature and heart rate were analyzed by 3-way ANOVAs (participants nested by ensemble by metabolic rate) with all two way and three way interactions. Significant differences were observed between genders for metabolic rate and heart rate, but not for core temperature and critical WBGT across metabolic level and ensembles. While there were differences between genders in metabolic rate they did not affect the overall conclusions. The heart rate was significantly higher (12 bpm) for women than for men.

Heat stress conditions are prevalent in the working environment around the world. Often they are not readily engineered out. Administrative controls and, in extreme/toxic environments, personal protective gear are the means available to protect workers. For every combination of metabolic work rate, clothing ensemble and environmental WBGT, there is a time of exposure threshold, beyond which the worker can no longer compensate for the heat stress, and signs and symptoms of heat strain appear. Increasingly, worker environments require specialty clothing either for worker protection or to maintain a clean/sanitary environment. Prior to the publication of the USF safe exposure time equation, no simple method was available for determining safe worker exposure time based on a clothing adjustment factor. To demonstrate the validity of the USF SET equation, both direct and indirect data from different environments, metabolic rates, and clothing ensembles were collected to compare observed tolerance times to the predicted safe exposure time. Statistical analysis was performed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The USF SET equation predicted an acceptable safe exposure time, 19 % of the trials. Based upon this data, the USF safe exposure time heat stress equation over estimates safe exposure time for workers in hot environments, in various clothing ensembles at various metabolic work rates.

Heat stress is a common physical agent associated with many occupations. The most commonly used method of assessing heat stress exposure is an empirical method using the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Index but his method is limited in its ability to parse out individual contributors to the heat stress. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published a rational model called Predicted Heat Strain (PHS) in 2004, and rational methods have the advantage of separating out the individual pathways for heat exchange. The objective of this research was a performance assessment of the current PHS model. This experimental design consisted of 15 trials (3 clothing ensembles and 5 heat stress levels) involving 12 men and women. The clothing ensembles were work clothes, NexGen® (microporous) coveralls, and Tychem® QC (vaporbarrier) coveralls. The heat stress levels were 1.0 , 2.0 , 3.5 , 5.5 and 9.0 °CWBGT above the average critical environment for each ensemble determined in prior studies. The metabolic rate was 190 W/m2. The two outcomes of each trial were an exposure time when core temperature reached 38 °C (ET38) and a Safe Exposure Time (SET) defined as the amount of time required to reach either a core temperature (Tre) = 38.5 ºC, a heart rate of 85% age-estimated maximum, or fatigue. ix Trial data for environment, metabolic rate and clothing were inputs to the (PHS) model to determine a predicted amount of time for the participants to reach a Tre = 38 ºC, which was the limiting condition in PHS for acute exposures. The first consideration was predictive validity for which PHS-Time was compared to ET38. The expectation would be that PHS-Time would predict the mean ET response. Results for predictive validity indicated a moderate agreement between ET38 and PHS-Time (r2 of 0.34 and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient at 0.33). When the method for accounting for clothing was changed to that recommended by ISO, the PHS predicted times moved systematically toward a shorter exposure time and modest agreement (r2 of 0.39 and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient at 0.31). Protective validity was the ability of the PHSTime to predict an exposure time that would be safe for most people. In this case, PHS-Time was compared to SET. The PHS was protective for 73% of the cases. When it was modified to account for clothing following the ISO method, the protective outcomes were 98%. In addition, the PHS model examined with respect to starting core temperature and fixed height and weight. Using the actual core temperature improved the outcomes somewhat, but changing from 36.8 to 37.0 would be sufficient. There is a strong tendency to over-predict PHS-Time for individuals with a low body surface area, usually short and lower than average weight.

Excessive exposure to heat stress can cause a host of heat-related illnesses. For laborers, job specific work demands and protective garments greatly increase the risk of succumbing to the effects of heat stress. Microclimate cooling has been used to control heat stress exposure where administrative or engineering controls are not adequate. This study tested the performance of four personal cooling vests for use with insulated protective clothing (gas extraction coveralls) in warm-humid (35 ° C, 50% relative humidity) and hot-dry (40°C, 30% relative humidity) conditions. On 10 separate occasions, 5 male volunteers walked on a treadmill to elicit a target metabolic rate of 300 watts, for 120 minutes, while wearing a (a) water cooled vest, (b) air cooled vest, (c) frozen polymer vest (FP) (d) liquid CO2 cooling (LCO2) vest, or (e) no cooling (NC). A three-way mixed effects ANOVA was used to assess the results and a Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference multiple comparison test was used to identify where significant differences occurred ( < 0.05). The air, water, and FP systems produced significantly lower heat storage rates compared to NC. To the extent that the gas extraction coverall is worn in an environment between 30°C and 45°C and the rate of work is moderate, the FP, air and water vest were shown to manage heat storage well, reducing storage rate by about 48%, 56% and 65% respectively.

With regard to heat stress, the limiting factor inherent in clothing ensembles is the total evaporative resistance. Clothing with higher evaporative resistance impedes the ability to cool by sweat evaporation. Knowing the evaporative resistance provides a means to compare candidate ensembles. Further, a value for evaporative resistance means that a rational method can be used to assess the heat stress exposure. Evaporative resistance of five clothing ensembles (cotton work clothes, cotton coveralls, and three coveralls of particle barrier, liquid barrier and vapor barrier properties) was determined empirically from wear tests during two study phases. For Phase 1, the metabolic rate was held constant at 160 W/m², and three levels of humidity (20, 50, 70% rh) were explored. Fourteen heat-acclimated participants (9 men and 5 women) completed trials for all combinations of clothing ensemble and environment. In the Phase 2 study, the humidity was held constant at 50% rh, and three levels of metabolic rate (114, 176, 250 W/m²) were explored. Fifteen heat-acclimated participants (11 men and 4 women) completed trials for all combinations of clothing ensemble and environment. The data from both phases were analyzed separately using ANOVA. Significant differences were found among ensembles (p<0.0001). The vapor barrier ensemble had the highest resistance at 0.026 kPa m²/W. The liquid barrier was next at 0.018; followed by the particle barrier and cotton coveralls at 0.016. Work clothes was 0.014 kPa m²/W. Vapor and liquid barrier ensembles were found to be significantly different from other ensembles. From the Phase 2 study, evaporative resistances decreased with increased activity and ranged from 0.0024 (cotton coveralls) to 0.0094 (vapor barrier) kPa m²/W. The higher differences were associated with higher total evaporative resistance. The decreased evaporative resistances in Phase 2 can be explained by the pumping action associated with increased work. The relationship of Re,T to the difference of Pair -- Pskin was explored and found Re,T does not remain constant. Environment appeared to influence this relationship.

This dissertation evaluated nutritional approaches such as the addition of betaine, prebiotics, probiotics, transitional metabolic substrates, and β-mercaptoacetate (MAA; a compound which inhibits β-oxidation) to the diet of lactating dairy cows to determine their impact on physiological, metabolic, hormonal and production responses during thermal stress. The first objective was to evaluate the use of an organic osmolyte, betaine to reduce the impact of heat stress (HS). Cows were fed either 0 (control; CON), 57 mg/kg BW (mid) or 114 mg/kg (high; HI) body weight (BW) betaine and subjected to thermoneutral (TN) and HS conditions. There was an increase in milk yield during TN with HI betaine over controls (P< 0.01), but the advantage was lost during HS. Plasma glucose increased during HS in HI dose cows compared to control (P < 0.01) as did plasma insulin (P = 0.01). Betaine increased milk production during TN and plasma glucose in HS, but did not improve the HS response. Objective two evaluated the use of a probiotic or direct fed microbial (DFM), Calsporin (Bacillus subtilus C-3102) to decrease the effects of HS in dairy cows. We hypothesized that feeding Calsporin prior to and during HS would reduce pathogenic strains of bacteria, maintain commensal microbes, and improve ruminal anaerobic fermentation resulting in improved milk yield (MY). Milk yield was numerically increased (1.26 kg, P = 0.11) in cows fed Calsporin during TN but was reduced under HS (-2.67 kg, P < 0.01) and milk protein content was decreased (P = 0.05). The DFM tended to decrease somatic cell count (SCC) across periods (P = 0.07). Calsporin addition to the diet did not affect respiration rates and was associated with higher rectal temperature at 1800 in HS (P = 0.02). The expression of heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) was decreased with Calsporin treatment (P = 0.03) and in both HS and TN. The fecal microbial count did not change with the exception of the Calsporin strain in treated animals (P < 0.01). The third objective was to feed OmniGen-AF (OG) to dairy cows before and during thermal stress. We hypothesized that feeding OG to HS dairy cows will improve the immune response, and decrease production losses associated with HS. Cows fed OG maintained lower SCC compared to control (P < 0.01) during the recovery period. We did not detect differences between groups in serum calcium while serum non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) concentrations (P = 0.10) tended to be greater in OG fed cows across the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) portion including HS. Serum Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels were greater in OG cows (P<0.0001) across all sample days. Feeding OG reduced the HS response including serum Cortisol. The final study measured the effects of the metabolic substrate β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) during HS on feed intake and metabolites. Under TN conditions the cows received a bolus dose of BHB and dry matter intake (DMI) and metabolites were measured. The second part of this study used a bolus of MAA to limit the up-stream production of acetyl-CoA available for ketogenesis by inhibiting ß-oxidation. We proposed that dosing lactating dairy cows with BHB would decrease DMI, increase plasma insulin, decrease NEFAs and increase skin temperature by vasodilatation. The same cows were then subjected to HS and dosed with saline and MAA on different test days. The infusion of BHB increased skin temperature (time 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4°C r² =0.98 with serum BHB) and decreased serum NEFA levels (P < 0.01). There was no change in mean DMI, glucose or insulin. The bolus of MAA decreased feed intake, vaginal temperature, and insulin. There was an increase in serum BHB with the initial dose of MAA and an initial decrease in serum glucose (P < 0.0001) with MAA. Serum glucose increased as insulin decreased with MAA. The infusion of BHB did not alter feed intake in this study despite high plasma levels of BHB.

Humans are tightly linked to their thermal microclimatic environments, yet few studies have evaluated the outdoor thermal comfort of users performing physical activity. The purpose of this research was to critically review, assess, and apply findings using the COMFA ('COMfort FormulA') human energy budget for users performing physical activity outdoors. Research objectives were: to apply an improved multi-segmented skin temperature approach to the COMFA model; to evaluate its accuracy in predicting actual thermal sensation (ATS); to implement techniques to account for human behaviours associated with clothing and metabolic variations; to spatially assess human energy budget moderating effects of urban parks; and to investigate extreme heat stress situations. To evaluate modelled mean skin temperature (T_sk), field tests were conducted on subjects performing 30 minute outdoor sessions of steady-state moderately intense activity (cycling and running). The model accurately predicted T_sk, showing significantly strong agreement (r = 0.859, p<0.01). ATS votes displayed significantly strong rank correlation with budget scores calculated using both measured and predicted T_sk (r_s = 0.507 and 0.517, respectively, p<0.01). A further improvement of Incorporating conditioning level of an individual gave more realistic estimations of metabolism for budget estimation. Adopting a new relative wind velocity (v_r) equation, which incorporates wind to body angle, revealed errors of the original v_r equation in the modelling of convective heat loss and T_sk. Application of the COMFA model in urban spaces showed that energy budgets were more closely correlated to incoming solar radiation (r = 0.941) than air temperature (r = 0.490), with a significantly strong linear regression found with radiation absorbed by a human (R^2=0.858). Treed greenspace was shown to strongly enhance thermal comfort the greatest, decreasing budgets on average by 25.5 Wm^2. Budget values were found to be a strong predictor of emergency dispatch calls received in Toronto during the July 2010 heat wave (R^2 = 0.86). This study has displayed the potential of the COMFA outdoor model as a new tool to make heat forecasting more meaningful to the public, emergency responders, and urban planners. / OGS; NSERC

Victims of exertional heat stroke (EHS) in whom treatment is delayed have higher rates of multi-organ failure and a greater number of fatalities. Death related to EHS is preventable, through immediate treatment via cold-water immersion (CWI). To date little is known about the influence of treatment delays on core cooling following EHS. Thus we sought to examine the effects of treatment delays on cardiovascular and thermal responses prior to, during, and following CWI treatment in individuals with exercise-induced hyperthermia. Our findings demonstrate that treatment delays resulted in a sustained level of hyperthermia and cardiovascular strain that significantly increased the time an individual is at risk to the potential lethal effects of EHS. Moreover, we report that cold water immersion treatment is powerful enough to overcome the adverse effects of treatment delays and rapidly reduce core temperatures while facilitating the re-establishment of blood pressure towards normal resting levels.

This thesis examined why NCAA Division 1 American football “linemen” experience greater heat strain than “backs” during summer training camps. In study #1, exercise at a heat production of 350 W/m2 in a hot environment (Tdb:32.4±1.0ºC; Twb:26.3±0.6ºC) resulted in greater local sweating on the upper body (head, arm, shoulder and chest; all <0.05) and a greater core temperature (P=0.033) in linemen despite a ~25% lower heat production per unit mass (L:6.0±0.5 W/kg; B:8.2±0.8 W/kg). In study #2, greater convective and evaporative heat transfer coefficients (P<0.05) were found in backs during live summer training camp drills, but these did not lead to a greater dry heat transfer or evaporative capacity. However, the maximum metabolic rate per unit mass was lower in linemen due to differences surface area-to-mass ratio. In conclusion, the greater heat strain previously reported in linemen likely arises, in part, from differences in sweating efficiency and body morphology.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.