COURSE OVERVIEW

This course aims to provide the participants with a sound understanding of the effects of the thermal environment on people and means of assessing and controlling the risks associated with thermal stress.
On completing this course successfully, the participants will be able to:-
• Identify sources of thermal stress within the working environment
• Understand the nature of thermal strain on the body
• Make an assessment of the thermal environment through appropriate measurement and other means
• Evaluate the likely risk from exposure to thermal stress
• Suggest appropriate control approaches for the thermal environment
The course is normally run as a taught course over 5 days (minimum of 40 hours including practical/demonstration sessions, lectures, tutorials, guided reading, overnight questions and examination).
This course is designed to provide participants with a detailed and up-to-date overview of thermal environment. It covers the thermal spectrum covering extreme and moderate temperatures; the principles of heat stress, heat strain, homeostasis, thermal regulation and physiological responses to hot and cold environments; the heat production and heat exchange with the surroundings, heat balance equation and metabolic heat production and efficiency; the dry or non-evaporative heat transfer covering conduction, convection and radiation; the evaporative heat loss and acclimisation; the effects of excessive heat strain of hot and cold environments; and the predisposing factors in thermal stress.
During this interactive course, participants will learn the thermal surveys, measurement equipment, surveys and assessment of the degree of risk; the thermal comfort, scales for subjective evaluation of comfort, actual ideal indoor environments and work of fanger; the controls of thermal comfort and evaluation of hot environments; the use of heat stress indices; the effects of heat stress; the effective and corrective effective temperatures; the predicted 4-hour sweat rate, wet bulb globe temperature, heat stress index, required sweat rate, predicted heat strain index and thermal work limit (TWL); controlling hot and cold environments; and the various approaches to risk assessment.