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Experimental investigation of the effects of personal protective equipment on thermal comfort in hot environments

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) has become increasingly common, especially for healthcare workers performing nucleic acid sample collection. A field experiment and questionnaire survey were conducted in a semi-open transition space of a university building...

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Autores principales: Mao, Yudong, Zhu, Yongcheng, Guo, Zhisheng, Zheng, Zhimin, Fang, Zhaosong, Chen, Xiaohui
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier Ltd. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9239730/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35782230
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109352
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author Mao, Yudong
Zhu, Yongcheng
Guo, Zhisheng
Zheng, Zhimin
Fang, Zhaosong
Chen, Xiaohui
author_facet Mao, Yudong
Zhu, Yongcheng
Guo, Zhisheng
Zheng, Zhimin
Fang, Zhaosong
Chen, Xiaohui
author_sort Mao, Yudong
collection PubMed
description Since the outbreak of COVID-19, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) has become increasingly common, especially for healthcare workers performing nucleic acid sample collection. A field experiment and questionnaire survey were conducted in a semi-open transition space of a university building in Guangzhou, southern China. Thirty-two subjects wore PPE to simulate nucleic acid sample collection, during which thermal parameters were recorded and subjective questionnaires were completed. The relationship between thermal sensation and thermal index was analyzed to determine the neutral temperature and comfort temperature zones. Subjects had higher requirements for thermal environment parameters when wearing PPE than when not wearing PPE, and were found to have statistically significant differences in thermal perception when wearing and not wearing PPE. Wearing PPE significantly raised the subjects' thermal and humidity sensations and restricted their airflow. Wearing PPE resulted in thermal discomfort for the subjects and a high unacceptability rate for environmental thermal parameters. The subjects wore PPE for an acceptable duration of approximately 1.5 h. The neutral operative temperatures were significantly lower when wearing PPE than when not wearing PPE, and the deviation from the neutral temperature was 9.7 °C. The neutral operative temperature was 19.5 °C and the comfort temperature zone was 17.4–21.5 °C when subjects wore PPE, demonstrating that subjects who wore PPE preferred lower temperatures. These results suggest that people who wear PPE for work, especially outdoors, should receive more attention to ensure thermal comfort and safety.
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spelling pubmed-92397302022-06-29 Experimental investigation of the effects of personal protective equipment on thermal comfort in hot environments Mao, Yudong Zhu, Yongcheng Guo, Zhisheng Zheng, Zhimin Fang, Zhaosong Chen, Xiaohui Build Environ Article Since the outbreak of COVID-19, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) has become increasingly common, especially for healthcare workers performing nucleic acid sample collection. A field experiment and questionnaire survey were conducted in a semi-open transition space of a university building in Guangzhou, southern China. Thirty-two subjects wore PPE to simulate nucleic acid sample collection, during which thermal parameters were recorded and subjective questionnaires were completed. The relationship between thermal sensation and thermal index was analyzed to determine the neutral temperature and comfort temperature zones. Subjects had higher requirements for thermal environment parameters when wearing PPE than when not wearing PPE, and were found to have statistically significant differences in thermal perception when wearing and not wearing PPE. Wearing PPE significantly raised the subjects' thermal and humidity sensations and restricted their airflow. Wearing PPE resulted in thermal discomfort for the subjects and a high unacceptability rate for environmental thermal parameters. The subjects wore PPE for an acceptable duration of approximately 1.5 h. The neutral operative temperatures were significantly lower when wearing PPE than when not wearing PPE, and the deviation from the neutral temperature was 9.7 °C. The neutral operative temperature was 19.5 °C and the comfort temperature zone was 17.4–21.5 °C when subjects wore PPE, demonstrating that subjects who wore PPE preferred lower temperatures. These results suggest that people who wear PPE for work, especially outdoors, should receive more attention to ensure thermal comfort and safety. Elsevier Ltd. 2022-08-15 2022-06-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9239730/ /pubmed/35782230 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109352 Text en © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Mao, Yudong
Zhu, Yongcheng
Guo, Zhisheng
Zheng, Zhimin
Fang, Zhaosong
Chen, Xiaohui
Experimental investigation of the effects of personal protective equipment on thermal comfort in hot environments
title Experimental investigation of the effects of personal protective equipment on thermal comfort in hot environments
title_full Experimental investigation of the effects of personal protective equipment on thermal comfort in hot environments
title_fullStr Experimental investigation of the effects of personal protective equipment on thermal comfort in hot environments
title_full_unstemmed Experimental investigation of the effects of personal protective equipment on thermal comfort in hot environments
title_short Experimental investigation of the effects of personal protective equipment on thermal comfort in hot environments
title_sort experimental investigation of the effects of personal protective equipment on thermal comfort in hot environments
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9239730/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35782230
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109352
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