On the question of assessing the health risk of physical factors in open areas for workers
Authors:   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Privolzhsky Research Med - ical University» of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 603950, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Rakhmanov R. S. , Bogomolova E. S. ,   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Privolzhsky Research Med - ical University» of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 603950, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Razgulin S. A. ,   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Privolzhsky Research Med - ical University» of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 603950, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Evdokimov A. V. ,   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Privolzhsky Research Med - ical University» of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 603950, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Narutdinov D. A. ,   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Krasnoyarsk State Medical University named after. prof. V. F. Voino-Yasenetsky» Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation
Published: February 2025

Physical factors in an open area have an impact on working people. In the Arctic (M. Chelyuskin,
O. Dickson) and the Subarctic (Norilsk region), according to data for 2018–2022, the effect of
cold on the body was assessed by an integral indicator of the body’s cooling conditions, determined
in temperature and wind speed, as well as the thermal climate index (TCI), including humidity and
radiation temperature. The equivalent temperatures were calculated and compared with the values of
TCI. The integral indicator of the cooling conditions of the body allows you to determine the type of risk
without the possibility of determining ET, additional calculations are necessary for this. The minimum
differences between equivalent temperatures and temperatures in summer and September, then they
increased until January (the second minimum in January), increased again until April, and in May the
differences began to decrease. TCI temperatures are higher than equivalent temperatures; it provides a
more extended characterization of a person’s thermal sensation. The risk of frostbite in exposed areas
of the body is determined by the specific territory. The risk according to the integral indicator of body
cooling conditions is moderate (8 months for M. Chelyuskin, 8–9 months for fr. Dixon, 5–6 months for
Norilsk) and critical (respectively 4, 3–4 and 2–3 months) per year. The risks range from mild to severe
(Norilsk), from moderate to extreme (Arctic). The gradation of «very severe cold stress» according
to the TCI corresponded to the critical risk according to the integral indicator of the body’s cooling
conditions; «moderate-severe cold stress» corresponded to the criterion of «moderate cold risk». The
calculation of TCI allows you to determine specific temperature values, their values are higher than
equivalent temperatures; it indicates a more significant cold risk than the integral indicator of body
cooling conditions. To determine the indicator characterizing the presence of cold risk for the body in
open areas, the most optimal should be considered TCI.