Safety and health risks for workers exposed to cold thermal environments: A frozen food processing industry perspective.

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.

Workplace adaptation to people with disabilities at construction industry in Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Despite the attempts to include people with disabilities at work, the number of such people seeking employment and of those receiving job opportunities remains low. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to evaluate the construction jobs of bricklayer, carpenter, steel fixer, painter, laborer 1, laborer 2 and foreman on the construction site of a water supply network so as to determine the profile of workers with disabilities who could perform these jobs and what adaptations are needed. METHODS: The methods used were: direct observation of the activities and the environment, interviews with staff on the site, and a video and photographic record of the tasks, while the software ErgoDis/IBV was used to analyze the jobs. RESULTS: it was found that workers with hearing impairments could perform the activities without any adaptations to the job, while for individuals whose leg or foot had been amputated, some adjustments would be needed. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, by the knowledge of the task, the physical, intellectual and organizational demands of jobs and knowing the functional capabilities of workers with disabilities, reasonable adaptation to work environments can be carried out adequately. To achieve this goal, it is important that this be done through an integration of a multidisciplinary team, which involves the areas of occupational safety and ergonomics.