Interaction between indoor occupational heat stress and environmental temperature elevations during heat waves

Urša Ciuha; Tjaša Pogačar; Lučka Kajfež Bogataj; Mitja Gliha; Lars Nybo; Andreas D Flouris; Igor B Mekjavic

doi:10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0024.1

Interaction between indoor occupational heat stress and environmental temperature elevations during heat waves

Urša Ciuha^*, Tjaša Pogačar, Lučka Kajfež Bogataj, Mitja Gliha, Lars Nybo, Andreas D Flouris, Igor B Mekjavic

^*Corresponding author for this work

The August Krogh Section for Human Physiology

7 Citations (Scopus)

11 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Occupational heat strain is a public health threat, and for outdoor industries there is a direct influence from elevated environmental temperatures during heat waves. However, the impact in indoor settings is more complex as industrial heat production and building architecture become factors of importance. Therefore, this study evaluated effects of heat waves on manufacturing productivity. Production halls in a manufacturing company were instrumented with 33 dataloggers to track air temperature and humidity. In addition, outdoor thermal conditions collected from a weather station next to the factory and daily productivity evaluated as overall equipment efficiency (OEE) were obtained, with interaction between productivity and thermal conditions analyzed before, during, and after four documented heat waves (average daily air temperature above 24°C on at least three consecutive days). Outdoor (before: 21.3° ± 4.6°C, during: 25.5° ± 4.3°C, and after: 19.8° ± 3.8°C) and indoor air temperatures (before: 30.4° ± 1.3°C, during: 32.8° ± 1.4°C, and after: 30.1° ± 1.4°C) were significantly elevated during the heat waves (p < 0.05). OEE was not different during the heat waves when compared with control, pre-heat-wave, and postheat- waveOEE. Reduced OEE was observed in 3-day periods following the second and fourth heat wave (p < 0.05). Indoor workers in settings with high industrial heat production are exposed to a significant thermal stress that may increase during heat waves, but the impact on productivity cannot be directly derived from outdoor factors. The significant decline in productivity immediately following two of the documented heat waves could relate to a cumulative effect of the thermal strain experienced during work combined with high heat stress in the recovery time between work shifts.

Original language	English
Journal	Weather, Climate, and Society
Volume	11
Issue number	4
Pages (from-to)	755-762
Number of pages	8
ISSN	1948-8327
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0024.1
Publication status	Published - 2019

Keywords

Faculty of Science
Climate change
Climatology
Stress
Temperature

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Ciuha et al_Weather, Climate, and Society_2019_Vol 11(4)_755-762Final published version, 631 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Interaction between indoor occupational heat stress and environmental temperature elevations during heat waves",

abstract = "Occupational heat strain is a public health threat, and for outdoor industries there is a direct influence from elevated environmental temperatures during heat waves. However, the impact in indoor settings is more complex as industrial heat production and building architecture become factors of importance. Therefore, this study evaluated effects of heat waves on manufacturing productivity. Production halls in a manufacturing company were instrumented with 33 dataloggers to track air temperature and humidity. In addition, outdoor thermal conditions collected from a weather station next to the factory and daily productivity evaluated as overall equipment efficiency (OEE) were obtained, with interaction between productivity and thermal conditions analyzed before, during, and after four documented heat waves (average daily air temperature above 24°C on at least three consecutive days). Outdoor (before: 21.3° ± 4.6°C, during: 25.5° ± 4.3°C, and after: 19.8° ± 3.8°C) and indoor air temperatures (before: 30.4° ± 1.3°C, during: 32.8° ± 1.4°C, and after: 30.1° ± 1.4°C) were significantly elevated during the heat waves (p < 0.05). OEE was not different during the heat waves when compared with control, pre-heat-wave, and postheat- waveOEE. Reduced OEE was observed in 3-day periods following the second and fourth heat wave (p < 0.05). Indoor workers in settings with high industrial heat production are exposed to a significant thermal stress that may increase during heat waves, but the impact on productivity cannot be directly derived from outdoor factors. The significant decline in productivity immediately following two of the documented heat waves could relate to a cumulative effect of the thermal strain experienced during work combined with high heat stress in the recovery time between work shifts.",

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author = "Ur{\v s}a Ciuha and Tja{\v s}a Poga{\v c}ar and Bogataj, {Lu{\v c}ka Kajfe{\v z}} and Mitja Gliha and Lars Nybo and Flouris, {Andreas D} and Mekjavic, {Igor B}",

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doi = "10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0024.1",

language = "English",

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T1 - Interaction between indoor occupational heat stress and environmental temperature elevations during heat waves

AU - Ciuha, Urša

AU - Pogačar, Tjaša

AU - Bogataj, Lučka Kajfež

AU - Gliha, Mitja

AU - Nybo, Lars

AU - Flouris, Andreas D

AU - Mekjavic, Igor B

N1 - CURIS 2019 NEXS 362

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Occupational heat strain is a public health threat, and for outdoor industries there is a direct influence from elevated environmental temperatures during heat waves. However, the impact in indoor settings is more complex as industrial heat production and building architecture become factors of importance. Therefore, this study evaluated effects of heat waves on manufacturing productivity. Production halls in a manufacturing company were instrumented with 33 dataloggers to track air temperature and humidity. In addition, outdoor thermal conditions collected from a weather station next to the factory and daily productivity evaluated as overall equipment efficiency (OEE) were obtained, with interaction between productivity and thermal conditions analyzed before, during, and after four documented heat waves (average daily air temperature above 24°C on at least three consecutive days). Outdoor (before: 21.3° ± 4.6°C, during: 25.5° ± 4.3°C, and after: 19.8° ± 3.8°C) and indoor air temperatures (before: 30.4° ± 1.3°C, during: 32.8° ± 1.4°C, and after: 30.1° ± 1.4°C) were significantly elevated during the heat waves (p < 0.05). OEE was not different during the heat waves when compared with control, pre-heat-wave, and postheat- waveOEE. Reduced OEE was observed in 3-day periods following the second and fourth heat wave (p < 0.05). Indoor workers in settings with high industrial heat production are exposed to a significant thermal stress that may increase during heat waves, but the impact on productivity cannot be directly derived from outdoor factors. The significant decline in productivity immediately following two of the documented heat waves could relate to a cumulative effect of the thermal strain experienced during work combined with high heat stress in the recovery time between work shifts.

AB - Occupational heat strain is a public health threat, and for outdoor industries there is a direct influence from elevated environmental temperatures during heat waves. However, the impact in indoor settings is more complex as industrial heat production and building architecture become factors of importance. Therefore, this study evaluated effects of heat waves on manufacturing productivity. Production halls in a manufacturing company were instrumented with 33 dataloggers to track air temperature and humidity. In addition, outdoor thermal conditions collected from a weather station next to the factory and daily productivity evaluated as overall equipment efficiency (OEE) were obtained, with interaction between productivity and thermal conditions analyzed before, during, and after four documented heat waves (average daily air temperature above 24°C on at least three consecutive days). Outdoor (before: 21.3° ± 4.6°C, during: 25.5° ± 4.3°C, and after: 19.8° ± 3.8°C) and indoor air temperatures (before: 30.4° ± 1.3°C, during: 32.8° ± 1.4°C, and after: 30.1° ± 1.4°C) were significantly elevated during the heat waves (p < 0.05). OEE was not different during the heat waves when compared with control, pre-heat-wave, and postheat- waveOEE. Reduced OEE was observed in 3-day periods following the second and fourth heat wave (p < 0.05). Indoor workers in settings with high industrial heat production are exposed to a significant thermal stress that may increase during heat waves, but the impact on productivity cannot be directly derived from outdoor factors. The significant decline in productivity immediately following two of the documented heat waves could relate to a cumulative effect of the thermal strain experienced during work combined with high heat stress in the recovery time between work shifts.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Climate change

KW - Climatology

KW - Stress

KW - Temperature

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U2 - 10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0024.1

DO - 10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0024.1

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85074984356

SN - 1948-8327

VL - 11

SP - 755

EP - 762

JO - Weather, Climate, and Society

JF - Weather, Climate, and Society

IS - 4

ER -

Interaction between indoor occupational heat stress and environmental temperature elevations during heat waves

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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