School of Health, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, New Zealand.
Ind Health. 2012;50(4):267-78. doi: 10.2486/indhealth.ms1352. Epub 2012 May 30.
The WBGT heat stress index has been well tested under a variety of climatic conditions and quantitative links have been established between WBGT and the work-rest cycles needed to prevent heat stress effects at the workplace. While there are more specific methods based on individual physiological measurements to determine heat strain in an individual worker, the WBGT index is used in international and national standards to specify workplace heat stress risks. In order to assess time trends of occupational heat exposure at population level, weather station records or climate modelling are the most widely available data sources. The prescribed method to measure WBGT requires special equipment which is not used at weather stations. We compared published methods to calculate outdoor and indoor WBGT from standard climate data, such as air temperature, dew point temperature, wind speed and solar radiation. Specific criteria for recommending a method were developed and original measurements were used to evaluate the different methods. We recommend the method of Liljegren et al. (2008) for calculating outdoor WBGT and the method by Bernard et al. (1999) for indoor WBGT when estimating climate change impacts on occupational heat stress at a population level.
WBGT 热应激指数已经在各种气候条件下进行了充分的测试，并建立了 WBGT 与工作-休息周期之间的定量关系，以防止工作场所的热应激效应。虽然有更具体的基于个体生理测量的方法来确定个体工人的热应激，但 WBGT 指数被国际和国家标准用于指定工作场所的热应激风险。为了评估人群水平职业热暴露的时间趋势，气象站记录或气候模型是最广泛可用的数据来源。规定的测量 WBGT 的方法需要特殊设备，而气象站不使用该设备。我们比较了从标准气候数据（如空气温度、露点温度、风速和太阳辐射）计算室外和室内 WBGT 的已发表方法。制定了推荐方法的具体标准，并使用原始测量值来评估不同的方法。当估计人群水平职业热应激对气候变化的影响时，我们建议使用 Liljegren 等人（2008 年）的方法计算室外 WBGT，以及 Bernard 等人（1999 年）的方法计算室内 WBGT。
