Collaborations improve workplace heat risk research

Visions that developers Drs. Jo Anne Balanay and Sinan Sousan had a few years ago for the launch of an American Industrial Hygiene Association heat stress mobile app have become reality, with some added improvements to further protect workers.

The app uses weather forecasts and emphasizes wet bulb globe temperature as the environmental heat metric to caution and protect outdoor workers in high heat. Balanay, Sousan and other East Carolina University faculty members have received feedback locally and nationally, and expanded collaboration opportunities, resulting in added tools and features for the app like the ability to assess indoor heat conditions.

Summer research student Abigaelle Midgette looks at heat stress data outside the Belk Building. (Contributed photo)

“What I really like is that we contribute our own strengths into one goal of protecting workers from heat-related illnesses and deaths,” said Balanay, professor of environmental health in the College of Health and Human Sciences.

Balanay, for example, is an expert in industrial hygiene and occupational exposure assessment.

“But I’m not an expert in the health effects of heat stress,” she said. “So collaborating with an expert in the College of Nursing can bridge that gap. Also, Dr. Sousan is an expert in low-cost sensors, and I won’t pretend to know all of those. Bringing all the strengths together from different departments makes our study on heat stress more comprehensive.”

Continued research led to a co-authored article by several ECU faculty and students, “Assessing the Feasibility of Wearable Devices for Physiological Monitoring and Heat Risk Prediction in Outdoor Agricultural Workers,” published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

Collaboration with AIHA has continued. When there are technical questions to AIHA about the app, ECU — an R1 research institution — has answers.

“That is pretty cool, and it gets ECU out there because of these inquiries about further use of the AIHA app,” Balanay said. “Information coming from us, as the developers, gives more clarity on how the app actually is calculating WGBT and translating it into heat risk.”

Summer Immersion

Preliminary research data supports that the AIHA app is a promising tool for heat stress assessment.

Balanay and summer intern Abigaelle Midgette, from Fayetteville State University, concluded that the AIHA heat stress app is a reliable and cost-effective alternative to more expensive equipment.

Midgette’s research conducted at ECU, outside the Belk Building, compared data from the mobile app to data produced by the onsite reference Kestrel monitor. The Kestrel recorded slightly higher peak values, but the AIHA app also was accurate amid temperature fluctuations and the researchers determined there was no significant statistical difference in the WBGT readings between the tools.

This proved another layer of validation.

“The AIHA app provides an alternative tool to workplaces that do not have financial resources to purchase expensive equipment for their heat stress assessment,” Balanay said. “So it can be a big help for them, and a good educational tool for the workers themselves, because they can check their potential heat exposure. They also can use the app to plan ahead what work to do in the next hour or in the afternoon.”

Midgette and 12 other interns presented in July at the STEM Summer Immersion Program undergraduate research poster symposium. This was the fourth and final cohort of the program, led at ECU by Dr. Stephanie Richards (professor of environmental health science) and Dr. Ariane Peralta (biology professor), which paired students with ECU faculty mentors to conduct research and participate in professional development.

Sousan (Department of Public Health) and Dr. Liz Mizelle (College of Nursing) mentored research that provided a backpack with built-in hydration systems to outdoor agricultural workers as a method to prevent kidney failure from a lack of hydration. Students in this year’s cohort were from N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, Fayetteville State University and Chowan University. ECU faculty mentors represented the College of Nursing, as well as the Departments of Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Health Education and Promotion (environmental health and public health programs), and Public Health.

A Student’s Perspective

José Sandoval-González, a Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate student majoring in psychology and foreign languages and literatures, with a concentration in Hispanic studies, served as one of Mizelle and Sousan’s research assistants.

As a first-time student researcher, Sandoval-González said Mizelle and Sousan relieved any intimidation he felt.

“In a testament to ECU’s incredible faculty, they made the research environment welcoming and encouraging,” he said. “I really liked the idea of contributing to research that could provide real benefits. Research that aims to benefit other people, like this study, is one of the best kinds because it allows you to become familiar with populations of workers and environments that you otherwise might never experience.”

Another factor that influenced Sandoval-González’s participation is his Hispanic heritage and connection to the culture.

“When I think of farm workers, I think of hardworking Hispanic workers who are often working in difficult conditions, and unfortunately, they do not always have the best working environments or protections,” he said. “When I learned that I would be needed as a translator, I knew I would have the opportunity to work directly with Hispanic workers. That familiarity was another aspect that made the research process easier for me, and I really enjoyed conversing with the workers throughout my time on the project.”

While participating in the research, Sandoval-González was reminded how arduous an outdoor environment can be for workers, and he appreciated learning how something as simple as getting fresh groceries in a store can be a tedious process.

“I know how physically demanding outdoor work can be because I have seen it through my father and his work in construction,” Sandoval-González said. “It was very eye-opening to see for myself how hard farm workers really work. It made me more appreciative of the opportunities I have and motivates me to work harder for those who may not have the same opportunities.”

“Research should never be done in isolation,” added Dr. LaKeya Hardy, N.C. A&T hub director at NCInnovation, who lauded the STEM Summer Immersion Program’s collaborative aspects and success. “You are taking the right first step by participating in this program.”

The AIHA app, which analyzes weather data that already is available and repurposes it to make it more useful for heat risk assessment, is rooted in collaboration. Following discussions and insight from AIHA colleagues, improved features were added in the app for indoor locations and non-solar radiant heat contribution.

“They asked, ‘What if someone is near a boiler’ as an example,” Balanay said. “That is radiant heat, but not coming from the sun, and we thought about what that would do to their exposure. So we have added features based on the different feedback we have received throughout the years. The app, now, is much better as we considered all input from different experts around the country and even in other countries.”

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