Effect of wearing gloves on the thermal balance of Korean women wet-suit divers in cold water.

Effect of wearing neoprene gloves on the thermal exchanges of wet-suited divers was studied in 8 Korean diving women. Subjects, clad with 5-6-mm-thick neoprene wet suits (jacket, pants, and boots) either with or without wearing 3-mm-thick neoprene gloves, were immersed for 3 h in water of critical temperature (17.3 degrees +/- 0.8 degree C) while the rectal and skin (chest, leg, arm, and hand) temperatures and oxygen consumption were measured. Overall thermal insulation of the subject plus suit was calculated from the rectal-to-water temperature difference divided by the estimated rate of skin heat loss. The skin heat loss was assumed to equal metabolic heat production minus respiratory heat loss, corrected for changes in heat storage when mean body temperature changed. All measurements were carried out in a resting condition. During the 3rd h of immersion, the rectal temperature was lower with gloves (delta Tre = 0.30 degree +/- 0.04 degree C; P less than 0.05) whereas metabolic heat production was not significantly different. Consequently, the total thermal insulation was nearly 16% lower with gloves than without gloves. In both the hands and forearms, the regional heat flux determined directly using a heat flux transducer was higher and the thermal insulation index was lower with gloves than without gloves. These results indicate that in wet-suited subjects resting in cold (17 degrees C) water gloves do not provide additional protection against heat loss, but rather decrease the efficiency of thermoregulatory mechanisms. We suggest that sensory input from cold receptors in the distal extremities is particularly important in thermoregulation during immersion in cold water.