Behavioural adaptation: A review of adaptation to workplace heat exposure of kitchen workers with reference to gender differences in Durban

Sasi Gangiah

doi:10.4102/hts.v77i2.6823

Abstract

The article examines the gender disparities as women are at a greater risk to exertional heat illness that may go unreported in the industry, according to several reports. It is important to study the behavioural heat adaptations and prevalent behaviours for workers in order to understand the magnitude of the danger they face. Cooking is considered a safe occupation, but hazards certainly do exist and can represent a risk to the health and safety of the workers. Controls can be established to reduce the risk of illness. To attract and retain workers, the food service business must provide a good quality of life.Contribution: The study suggests how female workers in the catering establishments can adjust their behaviour to improve their experience at work. Are women more vulnerable to environmental parameters? Christian theology provides women equal status with men (Kategile 2020), however there are traces of androcentric aspects within the Bible. Women’s involvement in development is based on the theological premise that true development must have a holistic approach towards human development (Onwunta 2009). However, Sibani (2017) stated that the role of God or a creator of a religion, is always taken by a male and a woman’s place is in the household. The article conducts a comprehensive analysis of the literature on the various behavioural adaptation mechanisms used by kitchen staff to cope with heat exposure at work. Thermal tolerance variations are becoming more pronounced because of ethnicity and cultural differences. Health interventions and enhanced work performance are important objectives of workplace safety. Regulated heat in the workplace can be factored into the theory concerning the relationship between gender differences and contextual components. This would increase female food service workers’ understanding of thermal comfort, which is beneficial to productivity efficiency, worker satisfaction and well-being of workers.

Highlights

More than a decade ago, Chapanis (2004) claimed that modern ergonomics is not robust enough to deal with many significant differences found amongst the people of the earth
This study aims to investigate the magnitude of gender differences in the environmental ergonomic parameters namely, heat, ventilation and humidity, amongst kitchen workers
This study examines that given the gender equality/ inequality status, do women kitchen workers react to kitchen environment in the same way as men? Does their well-being involve different behavioural adaptations to men? Does the discomfort level of men and women differ? Are women more vulnerable or sensitive to environmental parameters? Can the morphological differences amongst male and female workers affect heat adaptation? Do differences in the clothing typically worn by men and women affect adaptation to heat? Do make-up and hairstyles influence discomfort from heat? Earlier, Hignett (2001) criticised that there is very limited ergonomics information on female workers

Summary

Introduction

More than a decade ago, Chapanis (2004) claimed that modern ergonomics is not robust enough to deal with many significant differences found amongst the people of the earth. Women’s higher tolerance for humid heat is a physiological adaptation that is most likely because of their lower sweat levels (Xiang et al 2014) This suggests that female workers can cope better with moist heat in the kitchen than male staff. Females in India are mostly (99%) dressed in loose-fitting Indian attire with much better scope for thermal adaptation (Indraganti, Ooka & Rijal 2015) This is totally in contrast http://www.hts.org.za with Lundgren-Kownacki (2018), who claimed that female workers are more prone to heat stress because of the use of clothing that inhibits heat dissipation. Whilst there are proactive practices for human heat adaptation in the workplace, it is

Screening

Findings

Conclusion