Critical Need
The summer of 2021 was the hottest summer on record in the U.S. For many, this passed relatively unnoticed. On a hot day they hit the power button on their air conditioners and adjusted the thermostats, resolving the heat of the day seamlessly. However, at least 30 million people in the U.S. do not have air-conditioned workplaces. They work outdoors or in spaces that are difficult to air-condition. Heat exposure is common in a variety of fields including manufacturing, construction, logistics, and defense. This poses tremendous costs to these workers’ safety, quality of life, and productivity.

Technology Vision
In the 20th century, refrigeration technology was gradually reduced in size and weight. It migrated from industrial uses, requiring huge amounts of space, to more compact residential and transportation applications. This evolution had tremendous effects on people’s health, productivity, and even architecture. ThermoBionics is leading the next evolution of cooling technology: a wearable system that manipulates water in novel ways to achieve evaporative cooling. ThermoBionics is developing ultralight, wearable cooling technology that will overcome the weight, efficacy, and duration barriers that have kept other cooling solutions impractical for workers needing 8+ hours of cooling. 

Potential for Impact
This issue is about far more than comfort. Research finds a 1.5-4 percent drop in worker productivity for every degree Celsius above ~25 °C (77 °F). The economic impacts of this are massive: the largest economic cost of a warming climate could be the lost labor productivity from heat exposed workers. This doesn’t account for aspects like worker safety; in California, only 850 workplace heat stress injuries are reported annually, but research shows 20,000 workplace injuries each year can be attributed to heat as accidents like falls from heights also rise as workers are more fatigued.

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