Technical Evaluation Report - Nato

T-10
show very different sweat gland distribution. Most of them are, as discussed earlier, used for
comparative measurements but the ultimate goal obviously is to imitate human sweating.
Initial comparative tests between labs have illustrated the high variability in results due to
these differences. A multi-country/multi-laboratory project on this topic would ensure that
resources would be used optimally, and a good knowledge of differences between different
approaches would be obtained.
• With the discussion of the new Environmental Stress Index, the time may be right to start a
joint project for the creation of a (black-box) electronic climate analyser which would use
sophisticated heat balance analyses or even physiological models to transform the climatic
measurements of the device into a simple heat stress index for use in the field which
eventually could replace WBGT.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
This symposium covered a very wide area of research. Exposure to heat and cold, together with its
health effects and the role of clothing and equipment in alleviating or amplifying ill effects of heat and
cold stress is investigated from numerous angles. Hence, the 43 papers presented here can only be a
very selective representation of the whole research field. Though, especially with the excellent review
papers, a good overview of the field was presented, the reader should keep in mind that for most topics
only a single or perhaps two representative communications were present. This in some cases implies
that for areas where controversy is present, only one view was presented at the meeting. This
evaluation report attempts to put these papers in perspective, but the reader should bear this problem in
mind when going through the material.
Notwithstanding these remarks, the symposium provided an excellent overview of recent research and
developments in this area and as was clear from the many discussions in and outside the meeting room
it provided substantial food for thought and ideas for future work.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank the programme committee Prof. Dr. von Restorff, Dr. Obusek, Dr.
Ducharme, Dr. Daanen and Dr. Pandolf, the panel executive Dr. Wientjes, Mrs. Pelat from the
RTA/HFM office and the local organisers and technical staff for their help in collecting the
information needed for this report.
Loughborough 25-10-2001.
George Havenith