Evaluating the influence of ambient conditions in the cooking space of railway pantry car using selected thermal indices and physiological parameter.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Hot and humid indoor environment of the kitchen affects worker performance. The Indian Railway's pantry car culinary is one of them that cooks food for the on-board passengers, which could be bothered by the hot indoor climate. OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to identify the indoor working environment of the railway "pantry car" using heat stress indices such as "Universal Thermal Climate Index-UTCI," "Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature-WBGT," "Discomfort Index-DI," "Tropical Summer Index-TSI," "Heat Index-HI," and Heart Rate-HR with clothing insulation. METHODS: The study was performed in 2018 (August-summer season) to collect field survey data on 6 railway pantry cars. Measurements were carried out during peak cooking times such as morning "7  00 am", day "11  30 am", evening "4  00 pm," and night "6  30 pm". This study's descriptive and Pearson's correlation analysis was accomplished using SPSS version 2016 software. RESULTS: The analysis results revealed that the average values were for UTCI (37.77±5.26°C), WBGT (30.42±2.28°C), DI (30.05±2.70°C), TSI (33.21±2.90°C), HI (48.53±4.86°C), correspondingly. During analysis, the strongest correlation association was observed between "TSI and DI" (r = 0.985, p < 0.000) and WBGT and TSI (r = 0.958, p < 0.000). A "significant correlation" was found between UTCI and HI (r = 0.637, p < 0.05). While no signification correlation was found between "heat stress indices and physiological parameters (p > 0.05)". CONCLUSION: In this study, all the heat stress index limit values showed highly harsh working conditions inside the pantry car, which created unfavorable circumstances for the culinarians. Inappropriate "ventilation design" could be a reason for discomfort in the railway pantry car.