Document Type : Original Research
Authors
1
Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Health, Faculty of Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
2
Instructor, Department of Occupational Health, Faculty of Health, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran
3
Professor, Department of Occupational Health, Faculty of Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
Abstract
Background and Aim: Heat stress is a work-related risk factor that could have a significant impact on occupational health. Therefore, the use of different approaches is important to control heat stress, including technical and management solutions. The aim of this study was to design and evaluate the performance of a cooling ice vest on the retention time of workers in hot environments.
Methods: The ice vest has been designed and sewn in three types of simple, thin and thick aluminum using 32 packets of water. To evaluate the temporal performance of ice vest, a number of physiological parameters, including oral temperature, mean skin temperature, heart rate and retention time have been studied. This study was conducted in two groups of intervention and control. The control group included adapted, non-adapted and no-vest subjects. The intervention group consisted of adapted subjects who used simple, thin and thick aluminum vests.
Results: The average retention time of non-adapted, adapted, thin and thick aluminum and simple vests was 20, 35, 90, 70 and 60 minutes, respectively. There was statistically significant differences among physiological factor results such as oral temperature, mean skin temperature and retention time (probability<0.05), but the heart rate of control group had no significant difference with the case group.
Conclusion: The results showed that the use of cooling vest effectively increased the retention time, and the thin aluminum vest was more efficient than the thick aluminum and simple vests.
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