# HUMAN-CENTRIC NON-INVASIVE PHYSIOLOGICAL SENSING SYSTEM FOR EARLY DETECTION OF WORKERS? HEAT STRESS IN THE FIELD

> **NIH ALLCDC R21** · PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE · 2022 · $229,553

## Abstract

HUMAN-CENTRIC NON-INVASIVE PHYSIOLOGICAL SENSING SYSTEM FOR EARLY DETECTION OF
 WORKERS' HEAT STRESS IN THE FIELD
PROJECT SUMMARY
Heat stress can abruptly raise the core body temperature above a safe threshold, shut down the temperature-
regulating system, and result in severe organ failure and even death. Long-term consequences of heat stress
can increase the chances of developing cardiovascular, respiratory diseases, and chronic kidney diseases. Due
to intensive physical labor and the use of protective clothing, many workers in heat-vulnerable industries, such
as construction, firefighting, and farm work, among other populations such as soldiers and athletes, have a
limited set of fundamental precautions for preventing traumatic or catastrophic heat stress. Also, the current
heat-stress regulations are based on overly general environmental or working conditions, not specific to
individuals. These methods do not account for workers' physical and physiological characteristics, and they may
reflect dissimilar responses to heat exposure even under similar conditions or similar responses when workers
are experiencing different conditions. As a result, any detailed protocol for early heat stress prediction is almost
entirely missing, and heat-stress interventions generally occur well after exposure becomes critical.
The overarching goal of this R21 project is to develop and evaluate a worker-centered heat stress
monitoring framework based on physiological and environmental signals. This system predicts workers'
heat-stress exposure at job sites by continuously interpreting biosignals and environmental signals
through the use of context-sensitive, data-driven, machine-learning models in real-time. This project
intends to prevent deaths and catastrophic injuries such as brain damage in labor-intensive industries that need
to improve heat-trauma procedures but lack sensitive means. As such, the proposed framework is a critical step
towards reaching key NIOSH strategic goal 6: "improve workplace safety to reduce traumatic injuries" for NORA
sector 21, mining, with intermediate goal 6.9, "excessive heat exposure," and strategic goal 7: "promote safe
and healthy work design and well-being" for NORA sector 23, construction, with intermediate goal 7.1, "non-
standard work arrangements." The proposed research will pursue NIOSH's strategic goals following our specific
aims. The first aim is to design and fabricate a non-invasive wireless physiological sensing system for continuous
elicitation of physiological responses (photoplethysmography [PPG], electrodermal activity [EDA],
electrocardiogram [ECG], skin temperature [ST], and core temperature [Tc]) that can predominantly assess
workers' heat-stress exposure. The second aim is to develop a physiologically based data-driven framework for
early prediction of workers' heat stress exposure. The third aim is to evaluate the performance of the developed
wireless sensing system and predictive data-driven framework i...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10527981
- **Project number:** 1R21OH012220-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
- **Principal Investigator:** Houtan Jebelli
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $229,553
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10527981

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10527981, HUMAN-CENTRIC NON-INVASIVE PHYSIOLOGICAL SENSING SYSTEM FOR EARLY DETECTION OF WORKERS? HEAT STRESS IN THE FIELD (1R21OH012220-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10527981. Licensed CC0.

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