Abstract
Introduction: Impact of heat on health of workers goes unrecognized by the virtue of the indispensable fact that every individual has varied perception and tolerance capacity. The present study determine the physiological signs with perceived subjective responses under the thermal stress.Materials and Methods: The study was spread on open field stone quarry workers (N = 934) during the summer (May to June), post monsoon (September to October), and winter (December to January).Results: In the summer months, dry bulb temperature range from 36.1 to 43.2°C and the distribution of Wet Bulb Globe temperature (WBGT) outdoor values were outlier-prone than normal distribution indicated heat vulnerability. The environmental effect on weighted average skin temperature (Tsk) local segmental Tsk and deep body temperature (Tcr) were greater than the effects that might be attributed to work severity. The tolerance time level in summer months (65 ± 13 min at WBGT 35 ± 2.3°C) was less than in other two season. About 85% of workers in summer, 68% in post monsoon and 79% in winter recorded working heart rate greater than 90 beats/min. Physiological and subjective responses to heat stress indicated that during summer month the workers complained of excessive sweating (93.5%), feeling of thirst/dry mouth (88.7%), elevated Core temperature (Tcr) (58.7%) and decreased working capacity (75.6%). The observation found that around 14% workers were vulnerable to heat stress and the workers had no knowledge to mitigate the heat related illnesses.Discussion and Conclusions: The stone quarry work as compared to other outdoor workers have environmental adversaries which becomes confounding variables in the study of such occupations. There was significant difference (p < 0.001) as far as the physiological and thermoregulatory responses were concerned in three different months of investigation.
Highlights
Impact of heat on health of workers goes unrecognized by the virtue of the indispensable fact that every individual has varied perception and tolerance capacity
Since the combined load of strenuous physical work and exposure to extremely hot environment have negative impacts on human health and safety, the present study focused on generating epidemiological data on the heatexposed stone quarry working population, with reference of biophysical perspective
Data indicated that the environmental effects on local segmental the skin areas (Tsk) and weighted average Tsk of workers were greater than the effects that might be attributed to work severity (Nag et al, 2013)
Summary
Impact of heat on health of workers goes unrecognized by the virtue of the indispensable fact that every individual has varied perception and tolerance capacity. Heat waves are becoming increasingly severe and frequent, exacerbated by climate change threatening health and livelihood directly or indirectly (Dutta and Chorsiya, 2013; Azhar et al, 2014; Nag et al, 2014). A number of sand stone quarries are located in different states of India, e.g., Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andaman and Nicobar islands. The workers use heavy hand tools for extracting process (layers of hard rocks) and perform many manual material handling tasks like breaking, drilling the hard rocks and lifting/carrying those for loading and unloading to transport to desired destination. Grecchi et al (2009) have found that the traditional working methods cause musculoskeletal pain and discomfort among the stone quarry workers due to awkward postures and lifting of heavy weights. In the western part of India summer temperatures in stone quarries often exceed 45◦C, indicating the risks of heatinduced illnesses and disorders among workers, with the relative vulnerability of young and elderly workers
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