Citation

Garzon-Villalba XP, Mbah A, Wu Y, Hiles M, Moore H, Schwartz SW, Bernard TE. Am. J. Ind. Med. 2016; 59(12): 1169-1176.

Affiliation

College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. tbernard@health.usf.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ajim.22650

PMID

27779310

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The Deepwater Horizon disaster cleanup effort provided an opportunity to examine the effects of ambient thermal conditions on exertional heat illness (EHI) and acute injury (AI).

METHODS: The outcomes were daily person-based frequencies of EHI and AI. Exposures were maximum estimated WBGT (WBGTmax) and severity. Previous day's cumulative effect was assessed by introducing previous day's WBGTmax into the model.

RESULTS: EHI and AI were higher in workers exposed above a WBGTmax of 20°C (RR 1.40 and RR 1.06/°C, respectively). Exposures above 28°C-WBGTmax on the day of the EHI and/or the day before were associated with higher risk of EHI due to an interaction between previous day's environmental conditions and the current day (RRs from 1.0-10.4).

CONCLUSIONS: The risk for EHI and AI were higher with increasing WBGTmax. There was evidence of a cumulative effect from the prior day's WBGTmax for EHI. Am. J. Ind. Med. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en