JP2009108451A - Heat illness-warning device for protective suit-wearing worker - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a heat illness-warning device for a protective suit-wearing worker designed to protect the worker from danger of heat illness while assuring the workability of the protective wear-wearing worker. <P>SOLUTION: The heat illness-warning device for a protective suit-wearing worker includes: integrated circuits comprising memories, a micro-processor and a radio module for sending/receiving signals with the outside; a protective garment to which an antenna sending information given from the micro-processor to the outside and receiving the signals from the outside is attached; a means for transferring the information to the worker; at least a single sensor of a sensor detecting the deep body temperature of the worker and a sensor detecting his (her) heart rate; and an outside computer disposed at the outside of a dangerous area. The deep body temperature and/or the heart rate of the worker detected by the sensor are/is sent to the outside computer via the antenna so as to be compared with heat illness-warning values regarding the deep body temperature and/or the heart rate stored in the outside computer in advance. When the danger of causing the heat illness is detected, the warning is given to the worker. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention is an apparatus for managing the health condition of workers in the field where it is necessary to wear protective clothing during work, such as handling of nuclear fuel materials, handling of harmful substances such as asbestos and dioxin, or fire fighting activities. In particular, the present invention relates to a device that warns workers in advance of the risk of heat stroke.

  For example, when removing existing equipment from a nuclear fuel handling facility, which is a radiation control area, in order to prevent internal exposure due to suction of nuclear fuel material by workers while preventing the spread of contamination due to adhering nuclear fuel material, A vinyl tent (hereinafter referred to as “Green House”) is installed in the factory, and workers are engaged in work while wearing special protective clothing. The protective clothing used here is much easier to heat than ordinary protective clothing, and the moisture accompanying sweating does not easily escape from the protective clothing. For this reason, the inside of the protective clothing becomes hot and humid, and the worker is placed in an environment that easily causes “heatstroke”.

  Conventionally, in order to prevent heat stroke and excessive fatigue, a time until reaching a work limit is determined in advance, and actual work management is performed based on the time. The work limit time is predicted from changes over time by measuring the heart rate and body temperature at a certain strength (eg, ergometer, step up / down) that simulates actual work in an artificial climate room.

  Although the work place is provided with a monitoring camera and remotely monitors the state of the worker, since the protective clothing is worn, the worker's facial expression and the like cannot always be accurately grasped. Therefore, the present situation is that the health management such as prevention of heat stroke of workers within the work limit time relies solely on self-management.

A “user support device” described in Patent Document 1 is known as a device that supports a person who is trying to take an action or who is taking it (hereinafter referred to as a user). This device grasps the user's own sweat amount and facial expression, the temperature around the user, components in the air, etc. using a sensor or camera, and sends the grasped information to a computer in the center via a communication means. It is a device that supports the user by performing processing and notifying the user of necessary information.
JP 2005-315802 A

  Since the user support device described in Patent Document 1 is not intended for workers wearing special clothing such as protective clothing, handling of nuclear fuel materials, handling of hazardous materials such as asbestos and dioxins, or extinguishing It cannot be applied as it is as a support device for workers who perform activities or the like. In particular, it is incapable of dealing with heat stroke, which is the most dangerous for workers wearing protective clothing, and in preventing heat stroke, taking into account the isolation from harmful substances and ensuring workability. There is a need for significant improvements.

  The object of the present invention is to prevent the worker wearing protective clothing from deteriorating the function of isolating it from harmful substances and / or while ensuring the workability of the worker wearing protective clothing. An object of the present invention is to provide a device for monitoring the degree of danger in real time and informing the worker of the information constantly or periodically.

  A heat stroke warning device according to the present invention includes an integrated circuit (IC) including at least a memory, a microprocessor, and a radio module for signal transmission / reception with the outside, and transmits information provided from the microprocessor to the outside. Protective clothing to which an antenna for receiving signals is attached, output means for transmitting information from the microprocessor to the worker, a sensor for measuring the deep body temperature of the worker, and a sensor for measuring the heart rate And at least one sensor and an external computer located outside the hazardous area. The measured deep body temperature and heart rate of the worker are transmitted to the external computer via the antenna, and are compared with respective heat stroke warning values stored in advance in the external computer. The comparison result is immediately notified to the worker by the communication means. In this case, if the risk of heat stroke is high, a warning is given to the worker. Here, when such a state continues to some extent, for example, the worker may be advised to evacuate from the dangerous area.

  Even if the harmful substance is a radioactive substance, the basic structure described above is the same. However, in order to minimize the influence of radiation on the IC, it is preferable to attach at least the IC inside the protective clothing. Even when using a radiation-resistant IC or a case where the IC is placed in a radiation-resistant case, it is even more effective that the IC malfunctions due to the effects of radiation. Can be prevented.

  It is even more preferable that at least one of the sensors, the IC, the antenna, and the like are integrated to form a sensing tag. The RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system is more compact and lighter, and offers many advantages such as reduced burden on workers, identification of workers, prevention of information leakage, heat resistance, and ease of radiation countermeasures. .

  According to the present invention, in a radiation control area, equipment contaminated with nuclear fuel materials, or equipment containing harmful substances such as asbestos and dioxins, wearing protective clothing, or carrying out inspection or dismantling, or extremely harsh It is possible to monitor and judge the heat stroke risk of firefighters in a severe heat environment based on real-time, remote and objective data, and not only detect heat stroke early, improve safety but also accumulate fatigue It can be expected to prevent human error from occurring.

  First, a schematic configuration of a heat stroke warning device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Here, an explanation will be given by taking as an example a device that warns the demolition worker of the risk of heat stroke when dismantling equipment contaminated with nuclear fuel material by wearing protective clothing in the radiation control area. Hereinafter, throughout the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate substantially the same functionally.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a pollution control house called a so-called green house. The house 10 is covered with vinyl that can be incinerated even if radioactive material adheres. The worker wears a completely sealed radiation-resistant protective clothing as shown at 11 to perform the dismantling work. That is, as described above, the worker wears the completely sealed protective clothing 11 and works in the pollution control house 10 where the temperature is likely to rise like an agricultural greenhouse. In addition, since it is impossible to replenish water in the radiation control area, the risk of heat stroke is extremely high.

  Information related to the physical condition of the worker, such as heart rate and body temperature, is collected by the monitoring terminal 12 which will be described in detail later with reference to FIG. 2 and transmitted to the computer 13 outside the radiation management area. The computer 13 performs a predetermined process that will be described in detail later with reference to FIG. 3 based on the input information related to the physical condition of the worker, and transmits the result to the monitoring terminal 12 of the worker. The worker in FIG. 1 wears a type of protective clothing 11 to which air is supplied from the outside, but whether air is supplied from the outside is not directly related to the present invention. Detailed description is omitted.

  Next, the monitoring terminal 12 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of the hot warning device according to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, the monitoring terminal 12 includes various sensors including a heart rate sensor 21, a deep body temperature sensor 22, a skin temperature sensor 23, a temperature sensor 24, a humidity sensor 25, and the like, a CPU 26, an RTC 27, a wireless module 28, a memory 29, and the like. An IC chip (integrated circuit) 20 is included. As this IC chip 20, a circuit may be individually configured and formed into an IC. For example, at least one sensor such as the deep body temperature sensor 22 and the IC chip 20 are used in an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system. Sensing tags that can be used can also be used. In this embodiment, the heart rate is measured by photoelectric pulse waves, and the deep body temperature is measured by the eardrum temperature. Usually, the deep body temperature measures the rectal temperature, but since the burden on workers is large, the eardrum temperature that can be expected to have the same effect is adopted, and the method is not limited to these methods.

  Next, the operation of the IC chip 20 will be described with reference to FIG. 3 together with FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart for explaining the operation of the monitoring terminal and the external computer in the heat stroke warning device shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, heart rate, deep body temperature and skin temperature information signals relating to the worker's physical condition taken from each sensor, and temperature and humidity information signals relating to the surrounding environment of the worker are clock pulses of an RTC (real time clock) 27. Are periodically input from each sensor (21-25) to the CPU (processor) 26 in the IC chip (step S30 in FIG. 3). The input signal, that is, input data is written into the attached memory 29 by the CPU 26 (step 31 in FIG. 3). The data in the memory 29 is periodically wirelessly transmitted from the wireless module 28 via the CPU 26 under the control of the RTC 27 (step 32 in FIG. 3). Since the above transmission technique is basically well known, further explanation is omitted. The data written in the memory 29 is taken out, for example, by wire after the work is finished, and a detailed data analysis is performed on the physical condition of the worker.

  An access point 30 provided with an antenna (not shown) capable of transmitting and receiving the above-described radio signal is set around the pollution control house 10. The setting position of the access point 30 is appropriately determined in consideration of the wireless transmission distance of the wireless module 28 in the IC chip, the planned work location of the worker, and the radio wave obstacle in the pollution control house 10. Normally, one access point is sufficient, but it may be set at a plurality of locations in consideration of the above-mentioned work environment and the necessity of specifying the position of the worker. Data received at the access point 30 is input to the external computer 13 and a trend of the input data is displayed (step 33 in FIG. 3). Further, according to the heat stroke evaluation program stored in advance in the external computer 13, the risk of heat stroke is evaluated based on the captured data (step 34 in FIG. 3). If it is evaluated as dangerous, a warning is displayed on the external computer screen and a warning is issued (step 35 in FIG. 3). At the same time, an instruction according to the degree of risk of heat stroke is given to the worker through the reverse route to the case of receiving data. For example, when it is not so urgent, it is instructed to take a break, and when it is judged that it is very dangerous to continue the work, it is recommended to evacuate from the pollution control house 10. In this case, for example, another communication means such as a transceiver may be used to directly give an instruction to the worker who is determined to be dangerous. Or you may use both together and perform double safety management.

  As the heat stroke evaluation program, the simplest is to set the data value of heat stroke risk obtained from several past cases as a threshold value, and compare the data value captured by the external computer 13 with the threshold value. Also good. The data transmitted to the external computer 13 may be at least one of an output signal value of the heart rate sensor and an output signal value of the deep body temperature sensor. That is, only the heart rate obtained from the past case may be set as the threshold used for the above-described determination of the risk of heat stroke, or only the body temperature may be set. Further, a warning may be issued when a predetermined body temperature and heart rate are reached, and an alarm (recommendation recommendation) may be issued if the state continues. In any case, the present invention is not a device intended to identify the cause of a disease such as heat stroke or heart disease, but rather determines the risk of heat stroke, and is not so strict. There is no need to ask. In the present embodiment, regarding the heart rate, when the heart rate for one minute continues for several minutes and exceeds 180-age, or after the work intensity reaches the peak, the heart rate after one minute passes is 110. Set to issue a warning if it does not return below. In addition, the deep body temperature was set so as to issue a warning when it exceeded 38 ° C. These values were set based on guidelines for thermal stress tolerance provided by the American Conference of Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) in the United States.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and is included in the claims of the present application without departing from the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the CPU, the memory, and the wireless module are integrated into an IC. However, the memory can be taken out alone, and a micro disk or a mini disk used in a mobile phone or a digital camera can be used. good. Moreover, you may comprise so that a radio | wireless module can also be taken out singly. What is necessary is just to be able to achieve the effect of this invention, and what is specifically adopted is a mere design problem.

  In the above description of the embodiment, the term “area” is used. However, the term “area” is not limited to a physical and mathematically defined one such as a radiation control area, Accordingly, it is used to include a range that is appropriately set each time. That is, in an accident scene such as a fire truck or a tank truck loaded with dangerous goods, it means a range set by a police officer (firefighter), for example. Further, as is apparent from the essence of the present invention, the term “worker” is used to include not only those who actually perform work such as dismantling and fire extinguishing, but also those who perform inspection and confirmation.

It is an outline explanatory view of the heat stroke warning device of the present invention. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a hot warning device according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the monitoring terminal and external computer in the heat stroke warning apparatus shown by FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... House for pollution control, 11 ... Protective clothing, 12 ... Monitoring terminal, 13 ... External computer, 20 ... Integrated circuit (IC)

Claims (2)

A heat stroke warning device for workers wearing protective clothing, the device comprising:
An integrated circuit including at least a memory, a microprocessor, and a wireless module for signal transmission / reception with the outside, and a protection provided with an antenna for transmitting information given from the microprocessor to the outside and receiving signals from the outside Clothes,
Means for conveying information given from the outside to the workers,
At least one of a sensor for measuring the deep body temperature of the worker and a sensor for measuring a heart rate;
With an external computer located outside the hazardous area,
The deep body temperature and / or heart rate of the worker measured by the sensor is transmitted to the external computer via the antenna, and heat stroke related to the deep body temperature and / or heart rate stored in advance in the external computer. A heat stroke warning device characterized by giving a warning to the worker when the risk of heat stroke is higher than a warning value.   The heat stroke warning device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the sensor, the integrated circuit, and the antenna is a sensing tag.

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