(Bloomberg) -- As extreme heat blankets the globe from Phoenix to Athens, entrepreneurs are responding with an array of personal cooling devices that can help reduce health risks for everyone from infants to outdoor workers.
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At Tokyo’s annual Extreme Heat Countermeasures Exhibition last week the focus was on how to keep workers in high-temperature environments, like construction sites and factories, cool and reduce the risk of heat stroke. As fossil fuel emissions accelerate climate change and with July set to become the world’s hottest month on record, there is growing appetite for the products from consumers and public institutions.
“We’re getting more orders from public facilities, like school gyms, to use our product,” said Hayato Ohashi, who works in sales at industrial fan manufacturer Earth Blower Japan Inc. “The heat is just getting extraordinary in the last decade—it’s not something that will suddenly disappear next year.”
Japan has one of the world’s oldest populations and its citizenry is particularly at risk from extreme temperatures. In 2020, 86% of heat wave deaths were among people above the age of 65, according to the environment ministry. And Japan isn’t the only country aiming to safeguard people: last week US President Joe Biden said the nation is spending $100 billion a year to protect Americans from extreme heat.
Here are six cooling products showcased at the trade show in Tokyo.
Baby carriers and beds
Tokyo-based Kuchofuku Co. has been making fan-equipped apparel like vests and jackets favored by many Japanese construction workers for decades. The company has redesigned some of its products as casual wear and home products for general consumers.
Fan-based cooling apparel works by accelerating airflow to dry perspiration and typically uses less energy than air-conditioning. The approach works best in more humid places where perspiration doesn’t evaporate efficiently.
Kuchofuku’s offerings included a fan-equipped baby carrier and a bed. The mattress, which is made of a sheet of flexible, mesh-like padding, has an electricity-powered fan at the foot that sucks air from the headboard to boost circulation and keep sheets dry. The baby carrier fans are battery powered.