Physiological strain of wearing aluminized protective clothing at rest in young, middle-aged, and older men

During surveillance tasks in hot industrial working sites it is often necessary to use reflective protective clothing against radiant heat sources. The aim of the present study was to assess the thermal strain of wearing radiation protective clothing in men of differing age. The study subjects were...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of industrial ergonomics 2000-02, Vol.25 (2), p.195-202
Main Authors: Marszalek, Anna, Smolander, Juhani, Sołtyński, Krzysztof, Sobolewski, Andrzej
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
body size
heart rate
heat tolerance
Protective clothing
Thermal strain
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:During surveillance tasks in hot industrial working sites it is often necessary to use reflective protective clothing against radiant heat sources. The aim of the present study was to assess the thermal strain of wearing radiation protective clothing in men of differing age. The study subjects were 24 healthy, normotensive, unacclimated men: 9 young (20–28yr) (group I), 9 middle-aged (43–52yr) (group II) and 6 older men (58–65yr) (group III). The subjects were similar in daily physical activity (low), body size and subcutaneous fat thickness. All subjects rested in a sitting position for 60min in a climatic chamber in two experiments with WBGT of around 29°C that represented a low stress (LS, low radiant heat and little clothing) and high stress (HS, high radiant heat and aluminized protective clothing). In LS, the subjects wore shorts and the WBGT was driven by air temperature and humidity (tnwb =25°C, tg =38°C). In HS, subjects wore an aluminized suit and the WBGT was driven by high radiant heat from infrared heaters (tnwb =22°C, tg=41°C). During the experiments, rectal and skin temperatures, heart rate, body mass loss, and blood pressure were measured, and subjective ratings were collected. No differences in rectal temperature, skin temperatures and in total body sweat rate were observed between the age groups in LS and HS. Heart rate response was not different between LS and HS, but it was significantly higher in group III compared to groups I and II at rest and at the end of both exposures. Mean arterial blood pressure was significantly higher in groups III and II than in group I (p
ISSN:0169-8141
1872-8219
DOI:10.1016/S0169-8141(98)00107-3