Abstract des Autors

Fall football practice generally begins during the hottest period of the year. Exercise during this period exposes athletes to risks of heat illness and possible death. Practice is made even more dangerous by training in a padded football uniform. In order to delineate optimal practice times in which the environmental heat load may not be so severe, air temperature and relative humidity were averaged for the months of August and September for three years (1984-1986) for ten cities in the southeastern United States. The Football Weather Guide (FWG) was used to classify the relative severity of the recorded climatic conditions. The superimposition of daily three-year averages for each three-hour time period on the FWG revealed that there were no environmental combinations at any time period during the month of August for any of the ten cities that would be considered safe for outdoor practice in full uniform. Similar results were recorded for September in eight of the ten cities. The only practice times that were outside of the "danger" zone for any of the observed cities during September, were 3 pm and 6 pm for the city of Columbia, South Carolina, and 3 pm for the city of Jackson, Mississippi. These time periods were situated in the "cautionary" zone, which suggests that the players are still at increased risk of developing heat illness. Verf.-Referat