Citation

Heidari H, Golbabaei F, Shamsipour A, Rahimi Forushani A, Gaeini A. Int. J. Occup. Safety Ergonomics 2018; 24(2): 224-232.

Affiliation

Dept. Sport Physiology , University of Tehran , Tehran , Iran , aagaeini@yahoo.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Centralny Instytut Ochrony Pracy - Państwowy Instytut Badawczy, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10803548.2017.1281524

PMID

28440104

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The aims of this study were (a) to assess agreement coefficient between tympanic temperatures and the most popular and valid heat stress index, wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), in outdoor environments and (b) to determine a cut-off point for tympanic temperature as a heat strain index for evaluation of outdoor workers.

METHOD: 1452 measurements of WBGT index and tympanic temperature were recorded for outdoor workers from nine different climatic regions. Consistency of the WBGT and tympanic temperature were tested. The cut-off point for tympanic temperature in outdoor environments regarding WBGT evaluation was suggested based on obtained sensitivity and specificity from a receiver operating characteristic (ROC), or ROC curve.

RESULTS: The results showed that there were numerous situations in which WBGT exceeded reference value, whilst the measured values of tympanic temperature rarely reached permissible value for core temperature (38 °C). Therefore, an appropriate consistency of results between the heat stress and strain indices was not achieved.

CONCLUSION: The criterion of tympanic temperature equaling 37 °C was suggested for cut-off point for tympanic temperature as a heat strain index for outdoor environments evaluation.

Language: en

Keywords

Tympanic temperature; cut-off point; heat stress; outdoor environment