Study on Oxygen Supply Standard for Physical Health of Construction Personnel of High-Altitude Tunnels

Chun Guo, Jianfeng Xu, Mingnian Wang, Tao Yan, Lu Yang and Zhitao Sun
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Chun Guo: Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, 111 Erhuan Rd, 610031 Chengdu, China
Jianfeng Xu: Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, 111 Erhuan Rd, 610031 Chengdu, China
Mingnian Wang: Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, 111 Erhuan Rd, 610031 Chengdu, China
Tao Yan: Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, 111 Erhuan Rd, 610031 Chengdu, China
Lu Yang: College of Foreign Languages, Southwest Jiaotong University, 111 Erhuan Rd, 610031 Chengdu, China
Zhitao Sun: Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, 111 Erhuan Rd, 610031 Chengdu, China

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: The low atmospheric pressure and low oxygen content in high-altitude environment have great impacts on the functions of human body. Especially for the personnel engaged in complicated physical labor such as tunnel construction, high altitude can cause a series of adverse physiological reactions, which may result in multiple high-altitude diseases and even death in severe cases. Artificial oxygen supply is required to ensure health and safety of construction personnel in hypoxic environments. However, there are no provisions for oxygen supply standard for tunnel construction personnel in high-altitude areas in current tunnel construction specifications. As a result, this paper has theoretically studied the impacts of high-altitude environment on human bodies, analyzed the relationship between labor intensity and oxygen consumption in high-altitude areas and determined the critical oxygen-supply altitude values for tunnel construction based on two different standard evaluation systems, i.e. , variation of air density and equivalent PIO 2 . In addition, it has finally determined the oxygen supply standard for construction personnel in high-altitude areas based on the relationship between construction labor intensity and oxygen consumption.

Keywords: high-altitude; oxygen supply; construction labor intensity; oxygen consumption; air density; equivalent PIO 2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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