Affiliations: [a]
Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| [b]
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
| [c] Director, Strategic Partnership, Ministry of Labor, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Tamer Mohamed Khalaf, Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University. P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia. Tel.: +966114676301; Cell: 966538879703; Fax: +966114678657; E-mail: tamerkh@gmail.com.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Many research studies require recruiting heat-acclimatized workers to participate in heat-stress experiments and application fields. A reliable heat acclimatization program for workers in countries with hot environments has not been reported yet. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to estimate the effects of heat stress and the amount of acclimatization required in hot-climate countries. METHODS: Eighteen male workers from an industrial population participated in this experiment. Nine days of exposure to a hot environment (wet-bulb globe temperature, 30°C) was the independent variable. The participants’ cardiac costs and increment aural-canal temperatures were the dependent variables. RESULTS: The study results revealed that 5 days of exposure to heat sessions were sufficient to heat acclimatize the workers based on their physiological responses (i.e., heart rate and aural-canal temperature). CONCLUSIONS: According to the available literature, workers in hot climate countries, similar to the study cohort, can heat acclimatize faster than those in other Western countries.
Keywords: Heat stress, heat strain, hot climate, thermal environments, cardiac cost, wet-bulb globe temperature
