Citation

Ueno S, Hayano D, Noguchi E, Aruga T. J. Occup. Saf. Health (Tokyo) 2021; 14(2): 119-128.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Japan))

DOI

10.2486/josh.JOSH-2020-0025-GE

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The number of workers affected by heat stroke in the workplace is greatly affected by weather conditions. Additionally, the proportion of older workers, which has increased in recent years, can also affect the number of heat stroke incidents in the workplace. In order to provide data to support heat stroke prevention efforts in the workplace, we analyzed emergency transport data regarding heat stroke that occurred in seven government-ordinance-designated cities in Japan. We compared heat stroke that occurred at work and other places by sex, age, season of occurrence (season), time of occurrence, severity, and WBGT at the time of notification. The rate of heat stroke at work for persons in their 20s and 50s was 32.3% for men and 10.8% for women. Both men and women had the highest number in early August (male: 22.4%, female: 22.1%), followed by late July (male: 19.5%, female: 20.5%). There were two peaks in heat stroke incidents for men at noon and 15:00. In addition, the number of heat stroke incidents in an outdoor workplace was significantly greater than indoors under hot weather conditions. The rate of heat stroke incidents on a Saturday compared to weekdays was 74.1% for men and 84.2% for women. The number of mild heat stroke incidents at work was significantly larger than other places for both men and women. Heat stroke at work increased exponentially at a rate of 1.6 times for each increment rise of 1° C of WBGT. The number of heat stroke emergency transports was the same for persons in their 20s to the 50s, but increased for those older than sixty. For older workers, additional heat stroke measures may be required.

Language: en

Keywords

emergency transport; heat stroke; older worker; severity; WBGT; 救急搬送; 熱中症; 重症度; 高年齢労働者