Evaluation of Heat Stress Exposure to Occupational Workers at Workplace

Pallavee Vitti Krushna; Nishith Ghosh; Jagdish D Sharma; Alok Srivastava

Abstract

Heat stress is considered as an occupational health hazard encountered in indoor as well as outdoor environments. In industries, many operations are carried out which involve either heat generating sources like boiler, furnace, dryers etc. or hot operations like welding, melting, glass blowing and pouring. Moreover, the extremes of temperature in summer also add to the level of exposure to heat stress. Exposure of occupational workers to heat stress can lead to various health effects termed as Heat Related Illness (HRI). The health hazards will vary with degree of heat load and exposure level and individual susceptibility. Moreover, reduced work-efficiency due to heat stress also causes productivity loss. This study briefly discusses the severity of heat load and heat-related illness among occupational workers due to exposure to heat stress, evaluation methods of heat stress and occupational exposure limits. A case study is described for evaluation of heat stress using wet-bulb globe temperature and discomfort indices.Keywords: Heat Stress, WBGT Index, Heat Related Illness (HRI), Discomfort Index (DI)