Impacts of gender, weather, and workplace differences in farm worker's gear.

BACKGROUND: The farmers cannot help working in outdoor conditions which have high humidity and solar radiation during the harvest period. Wearable items including clothing are the nearest environment of human body, and to understand the current state of them can be a way to set up an active prevention strategy against the health risk from heat stress in summertime agriculture. The aim of this study was to investigate the work wear and accessories which the elderly farmers used during agricultural working. METHODS: One hundred twenty farmers (49 males and 71 females) working in nine separate sites on different days took part in this study. The average age of subjects was 61 years old. We examined the types of working posture, clothing, and items that the farmers used and/or wore. We also interviewed the farmers to know why they used such items while working. RESULTS: The results of this study were as follows: (1) Farmers worked in the thermal environment which was over wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) reference value, and the farmers could suffer heat stress due to workload induced from wearing conventional long-sleeved shirts and long trousers which were 0.66 clo in average under this summertime working thermal condition. (2) The farmers tended to change the layer of upper clothing for adapting to weather condition. (3) The types of footwear used seemed to be related with facilities as well as weather, and farmers tended to wear lighter footwear when the weather is hotter or when they work in PVC greenhouse. The majority of elderly farmers wore loafers and rubber shoes which had indistinguishable thin soles. (4) The types of hats showed the difference between facilities as well as gender and only 31.7% of all participants used long brims. (5) Korean elderly farmers did not use any active cooling item as agricultural auxiliary tools in summer harvesting time. CONCLUSIONS: Korean elderly farmers worked in poor surroundings which could threaten their health and safety and seemed not to adjust their workload and clothing during summer harvest season. Thus, it would be necessary to monitor individual responses in order to ensure that the risk of heat stress is prevented.

Assessment of vibration produced by the grinders used in the shipbuilding industry of Korea.

The objective of this study is to estimate the prevalence of finger blanching among the workers in a shipyard of Korea using the dose-response relationship suggested by ISO 5349. The characteristics of vibration exposure produced by six types of grinders were investigated. Vibration measurement was made under the real work conditions. Exposure time was estimated by questionnaire and direct observation. In addition, cold provocation tests were performed, and the results from the tests were compared with the estimated prevalence. As a result, 4 hour-energy-equivalent frequency-weighted accelerations of the finishing grinding (FG) and the prepainting grinding (PG) jobs were 6.23 m/s(2) and 13.39 m/s(2), respectively. The mean exposure time for holding the grinders was 4.64 h per day. Using the ISO 5349 method, it was predicted that after exposure to vibration for 10.79 yr, about a half of the FG workers could develop finger blanching. For the PG workers, the corresponding predicted latency was 5.02 yr. A discrepancy was found between the results from the ISO relationship and those from the cold provocation tests. A linear regression model was suggested employing vibration acceleration and vibration exposure time as explanatory variables for vascular dysfunction.