With climate change fueling an increase in the occurrence of hot weather and extreme heat events (EHE), the risk of indoor overheating is expected to rise especially across the planet’s large urban...

In the mining industry, various methods of accident analysis have utilized official accident investigations to try and establish broader causation mechanisms. An emerging area of interest is identifying the extent to which cultural influences, such as safety culture, are acting as drivers in the reoccurrence of accidents. Thus, the overall objective of this study was to analyze occupational health and safety (OHS) reports in mining to investigate if/how safety culture has historically been framed in the mining industry, as it relates to accident causation. Using a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, 34 definitions of safety culture were analyzed to highlight key terms. Based on word count and contextual relevance, 26 key terms were captured. Ten OHS reports were then analyzed via an inductive thematic analysis, using the key terms. This analysis provided a concept map representing the 50-year data set and facilitated the use of text framing to highlight safety culture in the selected OHS mining reports. Overall, 954 references and six themes, safety culture, attitude, competence, belief, patterns, and norms, were identified in the data set. Of the 26 key terms originally identified, 24 of them were captured within the text. The results made evident two distinct frames in which to interpret the data: the role of the individual and the role of the organization, in safety culture. Unless efforts are made to understand and alter cultural drivers and share these findings within and across industries, the same accidents are likely to continue to occur.

Context: During the summer of 2021, western Canada experienced a deadly heat event. From the first heat alert to postevent reporting, thousands of media articles were published that reference the heat event. However, a gap remains in understanding how this communication chain—from the release of a public heat alert to information shared through media outlets to the public—currently operates to disseminate heat-related messaging across Canada. Objective: To understand the role of digital media in delivering heat-health messaging during an extreme heat event in Canada. Design: A qualitative content analysis was conducted using Canadian news articles published on the 2021 Heat Dome between June 2021 and February 2022 (n = 2909). The coding frame was designed to align with the basic framework for information gathering used in journalism (who, what, where, when, and how) and included both concept-driven and data-driven codes. Results: Overall, 2909 unique media articles discussing the 2021 Heat Dome were identified, with the majority (74%) published by online news agencies (how). The highest article count was on June 29, 2021 (n = 159), representing 5% of the total data set (n = 2909) spanning 260 days (when); 57% of the identified locations were in British Columbia (where). Although we found that the top voices providing media-based heat-health messages are government officials (who), only 23% of articles included heat-health messaging that aligns with the government health alert bulletins released during extreme heat. In addition, heat-health messaging frequently included contradictory content, inconsistent language, or incorrect advice (what). Conclusion: The findings demonstrate clear opportunities to improve health communication related to extreme heat, perhaps most importantly, including updates to mass media messaging educating the public on heat-protective behaviors.

Recent projections suggest that large geographical areas will soon experience heat and humidity exceeding limits for human thermoregulation. The survivability limits modeled in that research were based on laboratory studies suggesting that humans cannot effectively thermoregulate in wet bulb temperatures (T _wb ) above 26 to 31 °C, values considerably lower than the widely publicized theoretical threshold of 35 °C. The newly proposed empirical limits were derived from the T _wb corresponding to the core temperature inflection point in participants exposed to stepped increases in air temperature or relative humidity in a climate-controlled chamber. Despite the increasing use of these thermal-step protocols, their validity has not been established. We used a humidity-step protocol to estimate the T _wb threshold for core temperature inflection in 12 volunteers. To determine whether this threshold truly demarcates the T _wb above which thermoregulation is impossible, each participant was subsequently exposed to T _wb above (~33.7 °C, T _above ) and below (~30.9 °C, T _below ) their respective inflection point (~32.3 °C, T _wb ) for up to 9 h (in random order). Core temperature rose continuously in T _above . It was projected that core temperatures associated with heat stroke (40.2 °C) would occur within 10 h. While T _below was also uncompensable, the core temperature rate of rise was considerably lower than in T _above such that it would take >24 h to reach 40.2 °C. Our study supports thermal-step protocols as an effective technique for evaluating survivability limits for heat exposure and provides a direct assessment of the limits of human thermoregulation.

Introduction: Due to rising temperature extremes, workplaces are seeking new solutions, such as using personal cooling garments (PCG) to mitigate and manage workplace heat exposure. This systematic review sought to assess the physiological and perceptual effects of PCGs on workers in standard work clothing performing moderate‐to‐heavy intensity tasks in hot environments.Methods: A peer‐reviewed search strategy was conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, Global Health, and Business Source Complete with no language or time limits. A meta‐analysis using a realist evaluation framework was then performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the PCGs.Results: Thirty‐three studies with 764 participants (98% male; average 21 ± 34 participants per study), conducted primarily in a laboratory setting (76%) were included. The studies were 193 ± 190 min in duration and consisted of a moderate‐to‐heavy work effort of 3.3 ± 1.0 METs in hot ambient conditions (temperature: 35.9 ± 3.3°C, 51.4 ± 12.1% relative humidity, wet bulb globe temperature [WBGT] 31.2 ± 2.6°C). The PCGs (n = 67) facilitated heat exchange through conduction (n = 39), evaporation (n = 4), convection (n = 2), radiation (n = 2), or hybrid combinations (n = 20). Conductive and hybrid PCGs offered the greatest thermoregulatory benefit, whereby core temperature (T_c) and heart rate (HR) reductions were consistently observed (Conductive: T_c: −0.3°C, HR: −12 bpm; Hybrid: T_c:−0.2°C, HR: −10 bpm), while PCGs directed at enhancing evaporative and radiative heat exchange had no or minimal effect on the physiological outcomes assessed (i.e., T_C < 0.1°C, HR: < 0.7 bpm).Conclusion: While the PCGs had a positive overall effect, conductive options offered the most consistent benefit to workers. WBGT, clothing insulation, and duration of wear significantly affected some physiological and perceptual outcomes.