Heat Stress Assessment using a Wearable Biosensor Network in Workplace Environments

Abstract

In recent decades, annual number of extremely hot days with a maximum temperature of above 35°C is tend to increase worldwide. Such hot environments are associated with increased risk of heat stroke. Therefore, an accurate heat stress assessment method is required to estimate the heat stroke risk and to find effective countermeasures for heat stroke. However, the conventional heat stress indices, such as wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT), cannot straightforwardly apply extremely hot environments that exceed body temperature because of little experimental evidence to support the applicability the conventional standards to such environments. In this paper, we propose a novel heat stress assessment method using the group mean heart rate response measured by a wearable biosensor network. Our method can provide real-world evidence of the heat stress that workers are exposed. The heat stress index of our method can be derived from real-world data. We will discuss the usefulness of this method based on the real-world data measured in workplace environments.