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A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Assemble Device to Prevent Infant Hyperthermia under Conditions of High Thermal Stress

High ambient temperature and humidity greatly increase the risk of hyperthermia and mortality, particularly in infants, who are especially prone to dehydration. World areas at high risk of heat stress include many of the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where most of their inhabitants have n...

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Autores principales: Farré, Ramon, Rodríguez-Lázaro, Miguel A., Dinh-Xuan, Anh Tuan, Pons-Odena, Martí, Navajas, Daniel, Gozal, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8703827/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34948991
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413382
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author Farré, Ramon
Rodríguez-Lázaro, Miguel A.
Dinh-Xuan, Anh Tuan
Pons-Odena, Martí
Navajas, Daniel
Gozal, David
author_facet Farré, Ramon
Rodríguez-Lázaro, Miguel A.
Dinh-Xuan, Anh Tuan
Pons-Odena, Martí
Navajas, Daniel
Gozal, David
author_sort Farré, Ramon
collection PubMed
description High ambient temperature and humidity greatly increase the risk of hyperthermia and mortality, particularly in infants, who are especially prone to dehydration. World areas at high risk of heat stress include many of the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where most of their inhabitants have no access to air conditioning. This study aimed to design, evaluate, and test a novel low-cost and easy-to-assemble device aimed at preventing the risk of infant hyperthermia in LMICs. The device is based on optimizing negative heat transfer from a small amount of ice and transferring it directly to the infant by airflow of refrigerated air. As a proof of concept, a device was assembled mainly using recycled materials, and its performance was assessed under laboratory-controlled conditions in a climatic chamber mimicking realistic stress conditions of high temperature and humidity. The device, which can be assembled by any layperson using easily available materials, provided sufficient refrigerating capacity for several hours from just 1–2 kg of ice obtained from a domestic freezer. Thus, application of this novel device may serve to attenuate the adverse effects of heat stress in infants, particularly in the context of the evolving climatic change trends.
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spelling pubmed-87038272021-12-25 A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Assemble Device to Prevent Infant Hyperthermia under Conditions of High Thermal Stress Farré, Ramon Rodríguez-Lázaro, Miguel A. Dinh-Xuan, Anh Tuan Pons-Odena, Martí Navajas, Daniel Gozal, David Int J Environ Res Public Health Article High ambient temperature and humidity greatly increase the risk of hyperthermia and mortality, particularly in infants, who are especially prone to dehydration. World areas at high risk of heat stress include many of the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where most of their inhabitants have no access to air conditioning. This study aimed to design, evaluate, and test a novel low-cost and easy-to-assemble device aimed at preventing the risk of infant hyperthermia in LMICs. The device is based on optimizing negative heat transfer from a small amount of ice and transferring it directly to the infant by airflow of refrigerated air. As a proof of concept, a device was assembled mainly using recycled materials, and its performance was assessed under laboratory-controlled conditions in a climatic chamber mimicking realistic stress conditions of high temperature and humidity. The device, which can be assembled by any layperson using easily available materials, provided sufficient refrigerating capacity for several hours from just 1–2 kg of ice obtained from a domestic freezer. Thus, application of this novel device may serve to attenuate the adverse effects of heat stress in infants, particularly in the context of the evolving climatic change trends. MDPI 2021-12-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8703827/ /pubmed/34948991 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413382 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Farré, Ramon
Rodríguez-Lázaro, Miguel A.
Dinh-Xuan, Anh Tuan
Pons-Odena, Martí
Navajas, Daniel
Gozal, David
A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Assemble Device to Prevent Infant Hyperthermia under Conditions of High Thermal Stress
title A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Assemble Device to Prevent Infant Hyperthermia under Conditions of High Thermal Stress
title_full A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Assemble Device to Prevent Infant Hyperthermia under Conditions of High Thermal Stress
title_fullStr A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Assemble Device to Prevent Infant Hyperthermia under Conditions of High Thermal Stress
title_full_unstemmed A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Assemble Device to Prevent Infant Hyperthermia under Conditions of High Thermal Stress
title_short A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Assemble Device to Prevent Infant Hyperthermia under Conditions of High Thermal Stress
title_sort low-cost, easy-to-assemble device to prevent infant hyperthermia under conditions of high thermal stress
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8703827/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34948991
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413382
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