The lunch break had just begun Thursday at the NovelAire Technologies manufacturing plant off South Choctaw Drive in Baton Rouge, but some of the guys heading off the factory floor had an extra task to finish before they ate and took a bathroom break.

Just outside the breakroom door, each man stood on a precise scale to measure his weight while a researcher took his temperature, and the worker had to answer questions about how he was feeling.

In a plant where workers grind, shape and snip sheet metal to build equipment for heating and air conditioning efficiency and other purposes, the men were also serving as test subjects to see how their bodies responded to the summer heat — when the factory floor is cooled with fans and, at times, when it isn't.

Researchers and company officials sai

See Full Page