Occupational Heat Stress on Workers' Productivity

Summary

Workplace heat exposure affects billions of people during their everyday work activities. Occupational heat stress impairs workers' health and capacity to perform manual labour. Therefore, the aim of this study was to observe the heat strain experienced by workers in occupational settings and test different strategies to mitigate it during actual work shifts in agriculture, manufacture, tourism, construction, and other services.

Conditions

• Risk of Heat Stress

Interventions

OTHER

Work/ rest scenario

For every hour of work, the participants were asked to take 3-10 minutes break in the shade.

OTHER

Hydration scenario

Participants were asked to consume at least 750ml of water or ice-slushies for every hour of work

OTHER

Clothing scenario

Participants were asked to wear different types of clothing during the work shift i.e. ventilated garments, white breathable coveralls, clothing with water submerged parts

OTHER

"E-carts" scenario

Participants that were involved in manual labor by carrying heavy weights were provided with "e-carts" (automated carrying vehicles)

OTHER

Business as usual scenario

No interference with the usual work day of the participants

OTHER

Sham evaluation

Participants were monitored during a usual day of work shift while sham measurements were recorded in order for them to get familiarized with the study environment

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Petros Dinas

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Andreas Flouris · [email protected]

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-07-05

Primary Completion

2019-08-05

Completion

2019-08-05

Countries

• Greece

Study Locations