Patrick Mansell/Penn State, CC BY-NC-NDĮach participant swallowed a small telemetry pill that continuously monitored their deep body or core temperature. Tony Wolf, a postdoctoral researcher in kinesiology at Penn State and coauthor of this article, conducts a heat test in the Noll Laboratory as part of the PSU Human Environmental Age Thresholds project. These experiments provide insight into which combinations of temperature and humidity begin to become harmful for even the healthiest humans. To answer the question of “how hot is too hot?” we brought young, healthy men and women into the Noll Laboratory at Penn State University to experience heat stress in a controlled environmental chamber. The results of these tests show an even greater cause for concern. It was not until recently that this limit was tested on humans in laboratory settings. People often point to a study published in 2010 that theorized that a wet-bulb temperature of 95 F (35 C) – equal to a temperature of 95 F at 100% humidity, or 115 F at 50% humidity – would be the upper limit of safety, beyond which the human body can no longer cool itself by evaporating sweat from the surface of the body to maintain a stable body core temperature. Scientists and other observers have become alarmed about the increasing frequency of extreme heat paired with high humidity. Mark Wilson/Getty Images The limits of human adaptability Long-term exposure to high heat can become lethal.
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