STARLITE CREATORS Vol.4Aiming "Zero" occurrence of heatstroke at work site.
Developing eMET, helmet with heatstroke risk measurement device.
Hello, I am Akiko Tsujimoto, a member of the public relation at STARLITE. It is already hot and humid ...., the sun is shining and the humidity is high. The discomfort index is already at its maximum. Climate condition is getting harsh and tense in Japan and we have seen increasing problem of frequent occurrence of heatstroke at work site. Heatstroke is the accident that may go unnoticed and may happen in any season now. And guess what, STARLITE's eMET can reduce the risk of heatstroke!
Let us find out what Y.T. the person in charge of developing eMET at STARLITE says! Why does heatstroke occurs?
Heatstroke is a functional disorder caused by inability of body to hot and humid environment. Environment factors such as weather, temperature or humidity, health factors such as respective own physical conditions and chronic illness, and behavioral factors such as type of work and break time are all related and leading to dizziness, falling or collapsing.
Does heatstroke often happen at work site?
Yes, especially in extremely hot season. The number of casualty because of heatstroke at work places increases and reaches over 30 cases which is 2% of the total death at work.
Heatstroke occurs not only in construction and building or transportation industries where most works are made outdoor, but also in the manufacturing industry with indoor work. For example, in the metal melting and processing where the temperature rises of above 40-degree Celsius, and in the food preparation industry, the temperature and humidity could be high with steam. If you wear work clothes, the temperature you feel would be much higher.
There are huge risk of heatstroke in workplace!
That right. In many cases, if one is so enthusiastic about his work, he is not aware of his own discomfort, or even if he is aware of it, he often pushes himself further while thinking "this would be all right". In addition, it is difficult for those around him to notice any changes in his condition when they are working in a place where it is difficult to talk each other or check on each other and then leading to heatstroke.
Therefore, we thought it was necessary to create a system in which the person himself would be aware of any changes and the people around him would be able to notice.
And , eMET has achieved that.
Exactly. eMET visualizes the risk for heatstroke by transmitting the information on physical conditions through the sensors attached to the helmet of a worker and warns him and the others concerned so that they can be aware of risk of potential heatstroke. We also developed the smartphone application for it.
Now we have the comment from the development person for the application.
I am N.S. In charge of the application development. At the early stages of development, the application was not favored among the workers because they did not wish to carry a smartphone because they thought it was hindrance for their work. Further we were annoyed by computer bugs due to difference in the phone models. But, as we kept going to find the cause of bugs, thinking of what kind of information our users would like to see in app with the help of specialists in the field, we finally created an app that can be used by people of all ages. Finally we have developed the app while putting "simplicity and usefulness " as the top priority!
Development of the unique " Body Heat Index" , Proprietary Evaluation Algorithm ".
What we have here is "Body Heat Index" This is a unique evaluation algorithms that takes into account of WBGT value* based on environmental factors and health factors. Based on the measurement data, a borderline (threshold)is set for each worker that increases the risk of heatstroke, and if the value exceeds the threshold, the system alert the user(worker)via smartphone.
*WBGT value:
A value used to determine the degree of risk associated with activities in an extremely hot environment.
It seems to be difficult to propose a "threshold" for individual worker, isn't it?
The threshold is different for men and women, and for different age groups. When I collected basic data within a company, I also did it, personally, under such hot and humid condition. As the data of status of having a pounding headache, feeling dizzy and cannot go anymore was digitized, I understood the severity and importance of preventing heatstroke, I felt a need for warning for danger certainly and quickly.
Wow! I have a feeling that this will change the way we work on site.
By the level of danger level of heatstroke to workers, eMET can protect them from working too hard because it indicates the effective timing for break. I would like to continue to analyze the collected data and improve the accuracy of eMET monitoring system, aiming to create an environment where workers can achieve peace of mind
Summary of interview
I never expected that he was personally working on site to collect data. His decision to eliminate heatstroke from working place must be driving him to do so. I believe his dream comes true before long.
New co-creation through partnership with customers.
Please feel free to contact us.
eMET is the service to visualize quickly the dangerous signs from heatstroke and encourage the preventive actions. Put a sensor on your helmet to measure and find a risk of heatstroke. With the monitoring system tailored for your workplace, we will solve the issues of work accident caused by heatstroke.