2007, Piran, Slovenia

Environmental Ergonomics XII
Igor B. Mekjavic, Stelios N. Kounalakis & Nigel A.S. Taylor (Eds.), © BIOMED, Ljubljana 2007
COLD EXPOSURE OF BARE HANDS AT LOW METABOLIC RATES:
CAN GLOVES BE REMOVED FOR SHORT PERIODS WHILE
WEARING WARM CLOTHES?
624
K. J. Glitz 1 , U. Seibel 1 , U. Rohde 1 , A. Sievert 2 , D. Ridder 3 and D. Leyk
1 Central Institute of the Bundeswehr Medical Service Koblenz, Germany
2 German Sport University Cologne, Germany
3 Research Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics
Contact person: karljochenglitz@bundeswehr.org
INTRODUCTION
In the cold, restrictions of manual dexterity are described below a local hand skin temperature
of 15°C (Heus et al. 1995). Adequate hand skin temperature can be maintained by gloves or
by high metabolic rates, however, gloves may restrict manual dexterity. Therefore, cold
acclimated personnel performing jobs with high metabolic rates (e.g. construction workers,
workers in cold-storage depots) frequently remove their gloves for short periods to execute
delicate manual tasks to compensate for perceived or actual encumbrance. Estimating the
practicability of jobs with low metabolic rates in the cold (e.g. steering and control tasks),
restrictions of sufficient manual dexterity and reduced thermal comfort have to be expected
when gloves are removed. But are manual dexterity or coordination and hand-grip strength
really affected by cold exposure while clothes with proper thermal insulation are worn?
METHODS
Sixteen cold acclimated volunteers (male, 22.2 ±4.8 y; 178 ±6 cm; 74.5 ±8.5 kg; clothes: ~2
clo) were exposed to cold in a climatic chamber (-5°C, vair