Effect of local thermal discomfort upon whole body thermal comfort was examined in 12 healthy young females. In the experiment, skin wettednesses in the whole body and in different target locations of trunk, arms, and thighs, were simultaneously controlled using special test garments. The experiment conducted in a climate chamber controlled at 22℃ 45 %RH. The subjects kept rest condition for 15 min and walked at 4.5 km/h for 45 min. Evaluation of thermal comfort was made for both the local and the whole body thermal comfort during the experiment. Saliva was collected before and after the exercise in order to examine relevance of thermal comfort in the whole body to salivary amylase activity and cortisol. High tendency was obtained that local thermal comfort limit depends upon the location. The thermal comfort limit in the arms and the thighs were 0.13±0.01 and 0.14±0.02 in terms of the skin wettedness. They were both smaller than that in the trunk (0.25±0.05). It was, however, observed that the thermal discomfort in the whole body was not induced when the skin wettedness in the whole body remained below 0.20±0.08 even if the local skin wettedness was higher than its local comfort limit. Salivary cortisol did not reflect thermal comfort sensation in the whole body, while salivary amylase activity did. Amylase activity remarkably increased with thermal comfort state when the whole body felt slightly discomfort.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.30/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE