Ethnic Differences in Thermal Responses between Thai and Japanese Females in Tropical Urban Climate

Abstract

The outdoor thermal environment might become worse than at present. It causes health injuries through the deterioration of the outdoor thermal condition. It is necessary to study how humans stay outdoors and adjust to thermal conditions. The purpose of this study was to clarify the influence of the outdoor tropical urban thermal environment on a subject who has been acclimatized to the environment studied using the outdoor thermal environment evaluation index ETFe. In addition, the tendency of human impacts was clarified through comparison to subjects from a temperate thermal environment region. As a result, it was found that an ETFe of up to 35°C could be recognized as a temperate thermal environment. However, when the ETFe was greater than 40°C, the subject could not tolerate the environment. There was not a significant difference of psychological reaction between Thai people, who were acclimatized to the tropical climate, and Japanese people, who were acclimatized to the temperate climate.