Relationship between body heat content and finger temperature during cold exposure

Abstract

The purpose of the present experiment was to examine the relationship between rate of body heat storage (S), change in body heat content (DeltaH(b)), extremity temperatures, and finger dexterity. S, DeltaH(b), finger skin temperature (T(fing)), toe skin temperature, finger dexterity, and rectal temperature were measured during active torso heating while the subjects sat in a chair and were exposed to -25 degrees C air. S and DeltaH(b) were measured using partitional calorimetry, rather than thermometry, which was used in the majority of previous studies. Eight men were exposed to four conditions in which the clothing covering the body or the level of torso heating was modified. After 3 h, T(fing) was 34.9 +/- 0.4, 31.2 +/- 1.2, 18.3 +/- 3.1, and 12.1 +/- 0.5 degrees C for the four conditions, whereas finger dexterity decreased by 0, 0, 26, and 39%, respectively. In contrast to some past studies, extremity comfort can be maintained, despite S that is slightly negative. This study also found a direct linear relationship between DeltaH(b) and T(fing) and toe skin temperature at a negative DeltaH(b). In addition, DeltaH(b) was a better indicator of the relative changes in extremity temperatures and finger dexterity over time than S.

Hand-skin temperature and tracking performance

“…The effect of the bath temperature was confined to the two smallest track widths for the movement time and to the smallest track width for the number of errors. These results are similar to those of the gross finger dexterity and fine finger dexterity seen in other studies, such as that by Brajkovic et al (2001), where there were no differences in a C-7 rifle assembly and disassembly task with bare hands and gloved hands. The effects of the reduced hand/skin temperature are clearly in the reduction in fine motor control.…”

“…However, it should also be noted that wearing gloves will increase the muscular load requirement for a given task and will also hamper 15 handling small objects as tactile sensitivity is reduced (Buhman et al, 2000). The effects of using gloves or other suitable protection as a safety measure needs to be determined, because although gloves may protect hands against damage, they may well have an effect more detrimental to tracking performance than the lower temperature has, as finger dexterity has been found to be seriously impaired with gloves (Bishu et al, 1987;Brajkovic et al, 2001;Havenith and Vrijkotte, 1993). The hand-skin temperature will be slightly higher than the bath temperature due to the relatively short immersion time; the results need to be considered in terms of this limitation.…”

“…At the same time, Brajkovic et al (2001) did not find any difference between bare hands and gloved-hands in a C-7 rifle assembly and disassembly task and declared that gross finger dexterity tasks are not as affected as fine finger dexterity tasks such as the Purdue pegboard test. Tracking can be considered to be a fine dexterity task depending on the track widths.…”

“…However, dexterity associated with small part manipulations and assembly does reduce with the use of gloves (Bishu et al, 1987). Some have reported decreases of finger dexterity by as much as 60-70% (Brajkovic et al, 2001;Havenith and Vrijkotte, 1993).…”

Effect of Cold Conditions on Manual Performance while Wearing Petroleum Industry Protective Clothing

“…These parameters have been T ha and T fi , body heat content (H b ) and changes in body heat content (∆H b ) [7][8][9][10] . Gaydos and Dusek 10) looked at the effect of local versus total body cooling and concluded that T fi seemed to be the primary determinant of impaired manual performance.…”