Inside a small, sealed room, Olivia Leach swallowed a capsule that will quickly monitor her inner temperature. She then hopped on a stationary bike and ready to sweat. Slowly, as she started to pedal, the room began to warmth up at a price of 1 diploma each 5 minutes.
It felt “like a muggy, scorching summer season day the place you’re simply drenched in sweat,” mentioned Ms. Leach, a doctoral pupil at Pennsylvania State College.
Ms. Leach works within the lab of W. Larry Kenney, a physiology and kinesiology professor at Penn State. The lab’s work is a part of a rising physique of analysis exploring how the body deals with heat, and tips on how to assist folks acclimate to hotter climate.
Ms. Leach and different consultants mentioned that this analysis had develop into extra pressing as extra elements of the world confronted an rising variety of dangerously scorching days. In the US alone, excessive warmth brought on at the least 2,302 deaths in 2023, and a few analysis means that quantity could also be far higher.
With out the fitting preparation, pushing the physique too onerous in excessive warmth may be lethal. Virtually half of all heat-related deaths amongst staff happen on the primary day on the job, and greater than 70 % happen throughout the first week, in accordance with the Occupational Security and Well being Administration. Recognizing these dangers, the Biden administration recently proposed new guidelines to guard individuals who work within the warmth.
The proposal would entitle staff to so-called acclimatization plans, which might let new staff who aren’t used to excessive temperatures safely regulate to warmth by regularly rising their hours.
