“We found that the firefighters experienced reduced
subjective feelings of thermal and cardiovascular strain during exercise
compared to the non-firefighters,” says Glen Kenny, Ph.D., School of Human
Kinetics, University of Ottawa, in Ontario, Canada. He says this is “potentially
indicative of greater heat resilience in firefighters due to the nature of
their occupation.”
Interestingly, the researchers found no difference in the
levels of thermal and cardiovascular strain between the older heat-exposed
firefighters and non-heat-exposed older workers. However, the non-heat-exposed
workers felt more heat stressed relative to the older firefighters, and felt
that the work performed was physically more challenging.
“If you have older workers who work in the heat, they are in
a better position to handle working in the heat as compared to their
non-heat-exposed counterparts,” says Kenny. “Our discovery is especially
important given recent findings that aging can decrease an individual’s ability
to dissipate heat and therefore work in hot environments,” Kenny concludes.
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