Heat protection with immediate effect
Evaporative cooling successfully tested in iQ UV practice
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach calls for a plan against the heat. "Heat protection is life protection" is his credo, with which he wants to improve advance warning and reactions to heat waves together with representatives from the nursing and medical professions.
The German manufacturer of UV protective clothing, iQ UV, has, appropriately enough, already declared heat protection as an important goal in its guidelines and developed its products accordingly. A look at the Arab world has reinforced these considerations. There, people have been wearing long, flowing clothing for centuries, which allows a high level of air circulation and enables a pleasant reduction of one's own body temperature through the evaporative cooling of water and sweat.
The principle of temperature reduction through evaporation is therefore not new, but rather unknown in our latitudes. iQ manufactures its UV protective clothing sustainably from recycled plastic waste in Europe and recommends casually and loosely worn long-sleeved products that allow a high level of evaporation in addition to UV protection.
The concept has been tested for several years with outdoor workers, who notice this effect especially with long-sleeved shirts and provide positive feedback to employers and the manufacturer. "It is amazing that with a shirt - which seems too warm at first glance - you can work much more pleasantly in the blazing sun on our construction site than with a bare torso or short-sleeved T-shirts," reported road construction worker Klaus Zimmer, for example.
Markus Courtial, founder of iQ-Company and chief developer of the UV protection collection, sees a trend: "We observe an increasing demand for UV protection for the entire body: long outerwear, sun caps with neck protection or even high-visibility shirts with long sleeves."
He is comfortable with the federal government's introduction of warning levels for the public. "It helps if you know what to expect in the morning before you go to work. That's the only way to prepare, dress appropriately, carry enough drinks and be more likely to take a break, start earlier or finish later in the peak midday heat."
While Lauterbach wants to look first at care facilities, Courtial sees a high need among all those who are forced to work outside because of their profession. His wish to politicians and employers: "don't forget the outdoor workers who are most affected by the heat and high UV exposure." As an employer, he has already taken action and provides sufficient drinking water for his workers in addition to clothing.
iQ UV Heat Protection Work Wear
You should also know this:
The brain and organs need a constant body temperature for their vital tasks. So the body is constantly working to maintain this temperature: it reacts to cold with warming processes and to heat with cooling processes, such as sweating. To prevent this perspiration from evaporating into the air, clothing that does not absorb too much is important. Only in this way does the moisture remain on the skin until it evaporates, thus lowering the body temperature. Since this process is repeated continuously, cooling down is also a permanent condition. Natural fibres, which absorb liquid, become damp and wet themselves and whose evaporation is only slightly directed inwards but more outwards into the warm air, are not suitable for this. Synthetic fibres, on the other hand, absorb only small amounts of water, so that the moisture remains on the skin, evaporates there and directly cools the skin and thus the body temperature. As iQ UV is nevertheless breathable, there are no unpleasant odours and the exchange of warm and cold air takes place permanently.
