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

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          Abstract

          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.

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          Most cited references67

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          Daily dataset of 20th-century surface air temperature and precipitation series for the European Climate Assessment

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            American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Exertional heat illness during training and competition.

            Exertional heat illness can affect athletes during high-intensity or long-duration exercise and result in withdrawal from activity or collapse during or soon after activity. These maladies include exercise associated muscle cramping, heat exhaustion, or exertional heatstroke. While certain individuals are more prone to collapse from exhaustion in the heat (i.e., not acclimatized, using certain medications, dehydrated, or recently ill), exertional heatstroke (EHS) can affect seemingly healthy athletes even when the environment is relatively cool. EHS is defined as a rectal temperature greater than 40 degrees C accompanied by symptoms or signs of organ system failure, most frequently central nervous system dysfunction. Early recognition and rapid cooling can reduce both the morbidity and mortality associated with EHS. The clinical changes associated with EHS can be subtle and easy to miss if coaches, medical personnel, and athletes do not maintain a high level of awareness and monitor at-risk athletes closely. Fatigue and exhaustion during exercise occur more rapidly as heat stress increases and are the most common causes of withdrawal from activity in hot conditions. When athletes collapse from exhaustion in hot conditions, the term heat exhaustion is often applied. In some cases, rectal temperature is the only discernable difference between severe heat exhaustion and EHS in on-site evaluations. Heat exhaustion will generally resolve with symptomatic care and oral fluid support. Exercise associated muscle cramping can occur with exhaustive work in any temperature range, but appears to be more prevalent in hot and humid conditions. Muscle cramping usually responds to rest and replacement of fluid and salt (sodium). Prevention strategies are essential to reducing the incidence of EHS, heat exhaustion, and exercise associated muscle cramping.
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              Workplace heat stress, health and productivity – an increasing challenge for low and middle-income countries during climate change

              Background Global climate change is already increasing the average temperature and direct heat exposure in many places around the world. Objectives To assess the potential impact on occupational health and work capacity for people exposed at work to increasing heat due to climate change. Design A brief review of basic thermal physiology mechanisms, occupational heat exposure guidelines and heat exposure changes in selected cities. Results In countries with very hot seasons, workers are already affected by working environments hotter than that with which human physiological mechanisms can cope. To protect workers from excessive heat, a number of heat exposure indices have been developed. One that is commonly used in occupational health is the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT). We use WBGT to illustrate assessing the proportion of a working hour during which a worker can sustain work and the proportion of that same working hour that (s)he needs to rest to cool the body down and maintain core body temperature below 38°C. Using this proportion a ‘work capacity’ estimate was calculated for selected heat exposure levels and work intensity levels. The work capacity rapidly reduces as the WBGT exceeds 26–30°C and this can be used to estimate the impact of increasing heat exposure as a result of climate change in tropical countries. Conclusions One result of climate change is a reduced work capacity in heat-exposed jobs and greater difficulty in achieving economic and social development in the countries affected by this somewhat neglected impact of climate change.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Int J Environ Res Public Health
                Int J Environ Res Public Health
                ijerph
                International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
                MDPI
                1661-7827
                1660-4601
                13 August 2019
                August 2019
                : 16
                : 16
                : 2890
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Institute of BioEconomy—National Research Council, 50019 Florence, Italy
                [2 ]Centre of Bioclimatology—University of Florence, 50144 Florence, Italy
                [3 ]Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss, Zurich Airport, 8058 Zurich, Switzerland
                [4 ]Meteorology Group, Dept. Applied Mathematics and Computer Sciences, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain
                [5 ]Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Forestry Sciences and Technologies, University of Florence, 50144 Florence, Italy
                [6 ]Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
                [7 ]Unit Defense, Safety and Security, The Netherlands Organisation of Applied Scientific Research, 3769DE Soesterberg, The Netherlands
                [8 ]FAME Laboratory, Department of Exercise Science, University of Thessaly, 42100 Karies, Greece
                Author notes
                [* ]Correspondence: marco.morabito@ 123456cnr.it ; Tel.: +39-055-522-6041
                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7568-0229
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9542-6781
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6290-9752
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9535-7333
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9823-3915
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9090-1958
                Article
                ijerph-16-02890
                10.3390/ijerph16162890
                6718993
                31412559
                67f040db-9a19-428f-b2a7-6ffe5be8a025
                © 2019 by the authors.

                Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

                History
                : 30 June 2019
                : 09 August 2019
                Categories
                Article

                Public health
                worker,customized forecast,wet-bulb globe temperature (wbgt),risk level,heat adaptation,work breaks,hydration,european center for medium range weather forecasts (ecmwf),global warming

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