Heat Acclimation Does Not Protect Trained Males from Hyperthermia-Induced Impairments in Complex Task Performance

Piil, Jacob F.; Mikkelsen, C. Jacob; Junge, Nicklas; Morris, Nathan B.; Nybo, Lars

doi:10.3390/ijerph16050716

Cited by 18 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 42 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Field studies carried out also in the field of the HEAT-SHIELD project [14,20,22,65,79,80,81] aimed at evaluating the responses of workers exposed to heat stress conditions during different work activities will be particularly useful for identifying the best heat-related adaptation strategies helpful to manage this hazard situation. For now, only recommendations on water consumption and work/rest breaks clearly described in reports provided by international organizations working on this topic are provided.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dehydration may have an even larger impact on performance in cognitive occupational settings where people are exposed for prolonged periods to high heat stress levels and fail to prevent hypo-hydration [20]. Surely, a good adaptation to heat can help to prevent many negative consequences, even if it has recently been highlighted that heat acclimation may not be sufficient to protect against hyperthermia when complex tasks are performed [22]. Thus, the availability of timely heat stress warnings calibrated on specific work activities and accounting for the clothing worn would make it possible to reduce heat-related performance losses, especially in the case of prolonged heat exposure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An Occupational Heat–Health Warning System for Europe: The HEAT-SHIELD Platform

Morabito

Messeri

Noti

et al. 2019

IJERPH

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Existing heat–health warning systems focus on warning vulnerable groups in order to reduce mortality. However, human health and performance are affected at much lower environmental heat strain levels than those directly associated with higher mortality. Moreover, workers are at elevated health risks when exposed to prolonged heat. This study describes the multilingual “HEAT-SHIELD occupational warning system” platform (https://heatshield.zonalab.it/) operating for Europe and developed within the framework of the HEAT-SHIELD project. This system is based on probabilistic medium-range forecasts calibrated on approximately 1800 meteorological stations in Europe and provides the ensemble forecast of the daily maximum heat stress. The platform provides a non-customized output represented by a map showing the weekly maximum probability of exceeding a specific heat stress condition, for each of the four upcoming weeks. Customized output allows the forecast of the personalized local heat-stress-risk based on workers’ physical, clothing and behavioral characteristics and the work environment (outdoors in the sun or shade), also taking into account heat acclimatization. Personal daily heat stress risk levels and behavioral suggestions (hydration and work breaks recommended) to be taken into consideration in the short term (5 days) are provided together with long-term heat risk forecasts (up to 46 days), all which are useful for planning work activities. The HEAT-SHIELD platform provides adaptation strategies for “managing” the impact of global warming.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Occupational Heat–Health Warning System for Europe: The HEAT-SHIELD Platform

Morabito

Messeri

Noti

et al. 2019

IJERPH

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Test sessions. Similar to our previous work 6,23,53 , all participants arrived at the laboratory 30-45 min before the start of the experiment at both sessions. Participants then emptied their bladders into a sealed urine container, and individual urine samples were subsequently analyzed for urine specific gravity (USG) using a refractometer.…”

Section: Experimental Design Verification Of Changes In Brain Stem Ementioning

confidence: 94%

“…Hydration. As has been done in our previous work 6,23,53 , hydration was assessed by measuring urine specific gravity (USG) before and after completing each session, using a refractometer (ANTAGO, pocket refractometer, s/ no P811580, Tokyo, Japan). USG was measured to ensure that all participants were hydrated (USG ≤ 1.020 g•ml −1 ) before starting the trials and in combination with body mass assessment to track changes in hydration over time, in the respective sessions.…”

Section: Experimental Design Verification Of Changes In Brain Stem Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Direct exposure of the head to solar heat radiation impairs motor-cognitive performance

Piil

Christiansen

Morris

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Health and performance impairments provoked by thermal stress are societal challenges geographically spreading and intensifying with global warming. Yet, science may be underestimating the true impact, since no study has evaluated effects of sunlight exposure on human brain temperature and function. Accordingly, performance in cognitively dominated and combined motor-cognitive tasks and markers of rising brainstem temperature were evaluated during exposure to simulated sunlight (equal to ~1000 watt/m 2). Acute exposure did not affect any performance measures, whereas prolonged exposure of the head and neck provoked an elevation of the core temperature by 1 °C and significant impairments of cognitively dominated and motor task performances. importantly, impairments emerged at considerably lower hyperthermia levels compared to previous experiments and to the trials in the presents study without radiant heating of the head. These findings highlight the importance of including the effect of sunlight radiative heating of the head and neck in future scientific evaluations of environmental heat stress impacts and specific protection of the head to minimize detrimental effects. Approximately half of the global population live in regions where environmental heat stress is an issue that annually affects the ability to live healthy and productive lives 1,2. Negative effects range from thermal discomfort and impaired physical work capacity for healthy adults 3 to increased morbidity for workers regularly experiencing hyperthermia 1 and higher mortality for vulnerable citizens during heatwaves 4,5. While these issues are well-documented and exposure likely to be worsened by global warming, the effect of environmental heat stress on performance in cognitively dominated tasks is less clear. Intriguingly, in laboratory experiments, impairments in cognitively dominated task performance emerge only with profound hyperthermia 6-10 , whereas productivity losses in occupational settings are reported at considerably lower temperatures 1,11. The ability to maintain concentration and avoid attenuation of motor-cognitive performance is certainly of relevance for work and traffic safety as well as for minimizing the risks of making mistakes during other daily tasks. However, the lack of ecological test validity 1,12-14 as well as the low sensitivity of the stereotypical test protocols used in previous clinical or mechanistic studies in controlled indoor settings may have underestimated the impact of environmental heat stress in real-life scenarios 6-10. In particular, although laboratory-controlled environmental heat-stress studies commonly investigate or control for temperature, humidity and wind speed, solar radiation is often neglected, despite contributing a substantial heat load in outdoor settings, especially in the upright position with the human head directly exposed to solar radiation 15. Human brain function is highly dependent on a stable supply of blood glucose and oxygen, but the brain is also highly vulnerable to alterations...

show abstract

“…The primary purpose of these meetings was to present the main recommendations created by the HEAT-SHIELD team for combatting OH-Stress and to receive direct feedback from a range of stakeholders. These recommendations were produced for each of the five key European industries of interest (agriculture, construction, manufacturing, tourism and transport) based upon original HEAT-SHIELD research [3,4,16,[23][24][25], an extensive review of the literature [9] and expert knowledge. For ease of translation, these recommendations have been summarized in Figure 1, but further information is available on the HEAT-SHIELD website (https://www.heat-shield.eu/) and weather warning platform (https://heatshield.zona lab.it/) [26].…”

Section: Stakeholder Meetingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health vs. wealth: Employer, employee and policy-maker perspectives on occupational heat stress across multiple European industries

Morris

Levi²,

Morabito

et al. 2020

Temperature

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Successful implementation of cooling strategies obviously depends on identifying effective interventions, but in industrial settings, it is equally important to consider feasibility and economic viability. Many cooling interventions are available, but the decision processes affecting adoption by end-users are not well elucidated. We therefore arranged two series of meetings with stakeholders to identify knowledge gaps, receive feedback on proposed cooling interventions, and discuss factors affecting implementation of heat-health interventions. This included four meetings attended by employers, employees, and health and safety officers (n = 41), and three meetings attended primarily by policy makers (n = 74), with feedback obtained via qualitative and quantitative questionnaires and focus group discussions. On a 10-point scale, both employers and employees valued worker safety (9.1 ± 1.8; mean±SD) and health (8.5 ± 1.9) as more important than protecting company profits (6.3 ± 2.3). Of the respondents, 41% were unaware of any cooling strategies at their company and of those who were aware, only 30% thought the interventions were effective. Following presentation of proposed interventions, the respondents rated "facilitated hydration", "optimization of clothing/protective equipment", and "rescheduling of work tasks" as the top-three preferred solutions. The main barriers for adopting cooling interventions were cost, feasibility, employer perceptions, and legislation. In conclusion, preventing negative health and safety effects was deemed to be more important than preventing productivity loss. Regardless of work sector or occupation, both health and wealth were emphasized as important parameters and considered as somewhat interrelated. However, a large fraction of the European worker force lacks information on effective measures to mitigate occupational heat stress.

show abstract

Heat Acclimation Does Not Protect Trained Males from Hyperthermia-Induced Impairments in Complex Task Performance

Cited by 18 publications

References 42 publications

An Occupational Heat–Health Warning System for Europe: The HEAT-SHIELD Platform

An Occupational Heat–Health Warning System for Europe: The HEAT-SHIELD Platform

Direct exposure of the head to solar heat radiation impairs motor-cognitive performance

Health vs. wealth: Employer, employee and policy-maker perspectives on occupational heat stress across multiple European industries

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About