Maia Paulo Alves, Ruas Álvaro Cézar, Bitencourt Daniel Pires
Fundacentro, Florianopolis, SC, Brazil.
Int J Biometeorol. 2015 Oct;59(10):1395-403. doi: 10.1007/s00484-014-0949-7. Epub 2015 Jan 30.
It is well known that excessive heat exposure causes heat disorders and can lead to death in some situations. Evaluation of heat stress on workers performing indoor and outdoor activities is, nowadays, conducted worldwide by wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index, which calculation parameters are dry-bulb, natural wet-bulb, and globe temperatures, which must be measured at the same time and in location where the worker is conducting his/her activities. However, for some activities performed in large outdoor areas such as those of agricultural ones, it is not feasible to measure directly those temperatures in all work periods and locations where there are workers. Taking this into account, this work aims to introduce a WBGT index estimation using atmospheric variables observed by automatic meteorological stations. In order to support our estimation method, we used, as a test-bed, data recorded in the State of São Paulo (SP), Brazil. By adding the cloudiness factor in the calculation through measurement of solar radiation, the algorithm proved to be as efficient as those mentioned in this work. It was found that this method is viable, with WBGT-estimated values obtained from meteorological data measured by stations with a distance of less than 80 km. This estimate can be used for monitoring heat stress in real time as well as to investigate heat-related disorders and agricultural work.
众所周知，过度暴露在高温环境下会引发热紊乱，在某些情况下甚至会导致死亡。如今，全球范围内通过湿球黑球温度（WBGT）指数来评估从事室内和室外活动的工人所面临的热应激，该指数的计算参数包括干球温度、自然湿球温度和黑球温度，这些温度必须在工人进行活动的同一时间和地点进行测量。然而，对于在大型户外区域（如农业区域）进行的一些活动，在所有工作时段和有工人的地点直接测量这些温度是不可行的。考虑到这一点，这项工作旨在引入一种利用自动气象站观测到的大气变量来估算WBGT指数的方法。为了支持我们的估算方法，我们以巴西圣保罗州（SP）记录的数据作为试验台。通过在计算中加入通过测量太阳辐射得到的云量因子，该算法被证明与本文中提到的算法一样有效。研究发现，这种方法是可行的，从距离小于80公里的气象站测量的气象数据中获得的WBGT估算值是可靠的。这种估算可用于实时监测热应激以及调查与热相关的疾病和农业工作。
