Affiliations: [a] Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto(FEUP), Porto, Portugal
| [b]
Polytechnic School, University of Pernambuco (POLI/UPE), Recife, Brazil
| [c]
Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Brazil
| [d]
Center of Mathematics, University of Porto(CMUP), Porto, Portugal
| [e] Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto (FMUP), Porto, Portugal
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Tomi Zlatar, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP), Porto, Portugal. Tel.: +55 81 9 7914 9913; E-mail: tomi.zlatar@gmail.com; ORCID: 0000-0002-8915-908X.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Environmental temperatures in the fresh food industry vary from 0°C to 10°C, and go below -20°C for the frozen food industry, representing risk for the health and safety of workers involved. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this work was to evaluate the cold thermal stress risks for workers working in a frozen food industry. METHODS:A total of 27 acclimatized workers (13 male and 14 female) participated in a study which was conducted during 11 working days. The thermal sensation questionnaire and the cold work health questionnaire (CWHQ) were applied to all participants. Additionally, 4 workers were chosen to be fully monitored with a thermometer telemetry capsule for measuring the intra-abdominal temperature and 8 skin temperature sensors. RESULTS:The lowest recorded hand temperature was 14.09°C, lowest forehead 18.55°C, mean skin temperature had variations of 1.10 to 3.20°C along the working period. Highest and most frequent fluctuations were found in the hand and forehead skin temperatures, small changes were found in mean skin temperature. CONCLUSIONS:Answers to the CWHQ increase concern on clinical forms of “a frigore”, and in two cases the mean body temperature decreased below 35.0°C, which is defined in the current literature as a mild form of hypothermia.
Keywords: Cold exposure, thermoregulation, core temperature, thermal sensation, cold work health
questionnaire
