Critical WBGT for 4 protective clothing made of fabrics with different Total Heat Loss values.

Managing heat stress in the workplace while wearing protective clothing (PC) is critical for worker safety and health. There is a variety of PC, such as fire-fighting ensembles, emergency medical clothing, CBRN suits, etc., designed to protect the wearer's body from specific hazards, which have different levels of protection and thus different clothing thermal characteristics (thermal and vapour resistances). This study evaluated the critical wet bulb globe temperature (WBGTcrit) of PC ensembles with four different total heat loss values determined by a sweating hotplate (SHP) test.