Srinivasan Krishnan, Maruthy K N, Venugopal Vidhya, Ramaswamy Padmavathi
Department of Physiology, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Department of Physiology, Narayana Medical College, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Indian J Occup Environ Med. 2016 May-Aug;20(2):73-78. doi: 10.4103/0019-5278.197522.
Occupational heat stress is a major health burden with several potential negative health and well-being outcomes. It is only in the recent years medical research has addressed this risk factor. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of studies in the area of occupational heat stress and its health impacts. Research in occupational heat stress in developing countries like India is limited because of several challenges and constraints. Few challenges are permission from industries to publish the data, resistance for change from employers and workers, improper record of heat/any occupational disease by the employer or worker, study design, and paucity in number of studies. Proper education and guidelines can help to overcome some of the constraints. Proper and correct guidelines will help in mitigating the effects of excessive heat exposure on the health of workers. The studies in this area are limited, and the association between occupational heat exposure and health impacts is not clearly established. Hence, carefully designed studies are required to examine this association and thereby provide valuable information to protect worker's health.
职业热应激是一项重大的健康负担，会带来多种潜在的负面健康和幸福后果。直到近年来，医学研究才开始关注这一风险因素。本文旨在概述职业热应激领域的研究及其对健康的影响。由于存在若干挑战和限制，像印度这样的发展中国家在职业热应激方面的研究有限。其中一些挑战包括：行业是否允许公布数据、雇主和工人对变革的抵触、雇主或工人对热/任何职业病记录不当、研究设计以及研究数量不足。适当的教育和指导方针有助于克服一些限制。恰当且正确的指导方针将有助于减轻过度热暴露对工人健康的影响。该领域的研究有限，职业热暴露与健康影响之间的关联尚未明确确立。因此，需要精心设计研究来检验这种关联，从而为保护工人健康提供有价值的信息。
