Repeated AC-to-outdoor transitions may pose hidden health risk, research suggests
A student in Chennai noticed persistent fatigue, headaches, and throat irritation after crossing between an 18°C air-conditioned lab and 37°C outdoor heat up to six times daily. Researchers refer to this repeated exposure as thermal transition stress, and peer-reviewed studies have linked abrupt indoor-outdoor temperature shifts to measurable physical strain even in healthy individuals. A study on Malaysian office workers found that nearly half of AC users reported headaches and over 44% reported coughing, symptoms associated with Sick Building Syndrome. Experts suggest a safe indoor-outdoor temperature differential is around 10°C, yet many tropical campuses and offices routinely exceed double that threshold. Despite the scale of the issue — India alone has over 40 million workers in air-conditioned spaces — no widely available tool currently tracks cumulative daily thermal exposure or its health impact.
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