Data are collected, averaged, and updated once per second. There is also a menu for unattended logging of data. The user interface is sufficiently flexible to be adapted for alternative applications, and sensor modules can easily be developed for measuring additional environmental parameters. Heat stress causes discomfort and reduced productivity and can lead to more serious health effects such as accidents, illness, and even death. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures alone can lead to excessive fluid loss, shock, or heat stroke.
High humidity reinforces the effects of temperature by reducing the cooling effects of sweating.
Extended and strenuous exercise, or labor that increases the heat produced by muscles, also contributes to the risk of illness in the form of cramps, exhaustion, or heat stroke. Internal body temperatures, normally 37 C, are considered hazardous between 40-41 C. Death is likely to occur at 42 C and above. Much research into heat stress has been sponsored by the mining industries in tropical areas of countries such as South Africa and Australia. In some of the deeper mines in the Rand of South Africa and at Mount Isa in Queensland, Australia, where working rock face temperatures can exceed 60 C and humidity may be close to 100 percent, more than half of mining production costs are spent for ventilation and cooling. Two percent were completely unable to tolerate even the artificially cooled and ventilated working temperatures that vary between 30-40 C at the mine face.