Human Exposure to Heat

Together with Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, the Lorentz Center organizes a public lecture about the effects of human exposure to heat, by Hein Daanen and Peter van den Hazel.                       

The combination of climate change and urban heat islands lead to an increased human heat exposure. Can humans tolerate high thermal stress and if yes what are the limits? Can humans adapt to repeated heat exposures or will this lead to health issues?

During this lecture Hein Daanen and Peter van den Hazel will address these questions. It will be shown that healthy humans have a great potential to adapt to heat; they can even double their sweat rate and thus enhance cooling in the heat. For vulnerable people, however, heat exposure is a stressor as can be seen in morbidity and mortality statistics. Although heat has direct and indirect effects on human health,  several measures will be discussed that can counteract the thermal strain on the human body.

Hein Daanen
Hein Daanen is full professor in (environmental) exercise physiology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He worked 26 years for TNO, the Dutch organization for applied scientific research, mainly investigating thermal physiology and anthropometry in military populations. Currently, research is focused on athletes and thermally vulnerable people like children and elderly. His natural habitat is a climatic chamber with temperatures ranging from -20 to +60°C, where the experiments are conducted. See members.ziggo.nl/daanen for more info.

Peter van den Hazel
Peter Jan van den Hazel is a physician specialized in public and environmental health. In 2000 he was special advisor to Commissioner Wallström of the EU on the pre-work of the SCALE process. Currently his role in organizations is president of Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), chair of the board of INCHES, board member ISDE and advisor Chemical hazards at Public Health Services Gelderland-Midden. His current projects in the Netherlands and in Europe are related to urban green, heat stress and climate change adaptation, urban planning, Exposome and One Health.