Cardiac Stress Among Two Types of Handloom Weavers

Abstract

Handloom is one of the traditional cottage industries in India. In West Bengal, a large number of rural populations are engaged in it. Mainly two types of looms are used in unorganized sectors, viz., traditional handloom and newly developed Jacquard loom. In both cases the job is manual in nature, which causes cardiac stress. Thus the present study was aimed to evaluate the cardiac strain of two groups of handloom weavers. Sixty male handloom weavers of at least 3 years of experience were randomly taken from different areas of Nadia district in West Bengal, India. They were categorized into two groups, i.e., handloom weavers and jacquard loom weavers based on the type of loom they use. The study was performed during the period of February to April, 2015. Polar heart rate monitor was used to measure the resting, working and recovery heart rates. Cardiac stress indices like net cardiac cost (NCC), relative cardiac cost (RCC), etc. were calculated in both groups of workers. The different cardiac parameters, i.e., NCC, RCC, average working heart rate (AWHR), and energy expenditures, were significantly (p < 0.05) higher among jacquard loom weavers than the normal handloom weavers. Because jacquard loom work is very stressful, it also requires proper training and greater paddling force. AWHR was found to be 119.28 ± 5.69 and 144.53 ± 11.51 beats/min in the normal and jacquard loom weavers, respectively, and are also statistically significant. Maximum working HR of the jacquard loom weavers (144.53 ± 11.53 beats/min) was significantly (p < 0.05) more than that of the handloom weavers (119.28 ± 5.69 beats/min). So, with the introduction of new work aid, Jacquard machine in loom increases the productivity but also increases the cardiac stress. So the optimal balance should be formulated.