Exertional heat illness (EHI) risk is a serious concern among athletes, laborers, and warfighters. US Governing organizations have established various activity modification guidelines (AMGs) and other risk mitigation plans to help ensure the health and safety of their workers. The extent of metabolic heat production and heat gain that ensue from their work are the core reasons for EHI in the aforementioned population. Therefore, the major focus of AMGs in all settings is to modulate the work intensity and duration with additional modification in adjustable extrinsic risk factors (e.g., clothing, equipment) and intrinsic risk factors (e.g., heat acclimatization, fitness, hydration status). Future studies should continue to integrate more physiological (e.g., valid body fluid balance, internal body temperature) and biometeorological factors (e.g., cumulative heat stress) to the existing heat risk assessment models to reduce the assumptions and limitations in them. Future interagency collaboration to advance heat mitigation plans among physically active population is desired to maximize the existing resources and data to facilitate advancement in AMGs for environmental heat.
1.Univ Connecticut, Korey Stringer Inst, Storrs, CT 06269 USA 2.Ritsumeikan Univ, Coll Sport & Hlth Sci, Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan 3.NOAA, Washington, DC USA 4.Uniformed Serv Univ Hlth Sci, Consortium Hlth & Mil Performance, Dept Mil & Emergency Med, Bethesda, MD 20814 USA 5.Louisiana State Univ, Louisiana Sea Grant, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 USA 6.Univ Georgia, Dept Geog, Athens, GA 30602 USA 7.NIOSH, Cincinnati, OH 45226 USA 8.Univ Corp Atmospher Res, Boulder, CO USA 9.US Army Publ Hlth Ctr, Aberdeen, MD USA 10.Univ Calif San Diego, Scripps Inst Oceanog Dept, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA 11.Walter Reed Natl Mil Med Ctr, Bethesda, MD USA
Recommended Citation:
Hosokawa, Yuri,Casa, Douglas J.,Trtanj, Juli M.,et al. Activity modification in heat: critical assessment of guidelines across athletic, occupational, and military settings in the USA[J]. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOMETEOROLOGY,2019-01-01,63(3):405-427