Heat stress danger from personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a prominent topic of discussion for many years. Dr. Thomas Bernard, an expert on the physical stress faced by industrial workers, is quoted as saying:
“Among the workplaces with which I am most familiar, clearly high environmental heat and clothing requirements are the biggest problems. The environmental heat comes in the form of high workplace temperatures and humidity, and on occasion significant amounts of radiant heat. A person’s capacity for balancing the heat stress by evaporative cooling is truly remarkable. When special purpose clothing is worn to prevent burns or chemical contamination of the skin, the rate of evaporative cooling is greatly reduced.”