International standards and the ergonomics of the thermal environment.

The main purpose for heating and air conditioning of workspaces is to provide an environment that is acceptable and does not impair the health and performance of the occupants. Owing to production processes and external climate it may be necessary to work in unacceptable conditions for limited time periods. However, it must be ensured that these conditions do not impair the health of the employees. To do that, standard methods are needed so that different solutions and evaluations of the thermal environment can be done in a comparable way. The standards presented in the present paper include evaluation methods for moderate, hot, and cold environments, supporting standards for measuring and determination of the relevant parameters, and standards for measurement and evaluation of individual physiological conditions of humans.