The effect of thermal environment on physiological parameter among palm oil mill workers / Abdul Halim Johari

• Main Author: Johari, Abdul Halim
• Format: Student Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine; Environmental health. Including sewage disposal, air pollution, nuisances, water supply; RC Internal Medicine; Medical emergencies. Critical care. Intensive care. First aid
• Online Access: http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/42664/1/42664.pdf; http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/42664/

Working in thermal environment for hours pose great risks on developing heat illness to the workers and eventually impacts on their work performance. The risk may extend due to climate change and give massive effect to the workers. Concern to these issues, the purpose of this research was to study the effect of thermal environment on physiological parameters among palm oil mill workers. A total of 32 palm oil mill workers are participate in this study that came from six workstations which are boiler, press station, sterilizer, loading ramp, bunch press, and oil room. Participant’s physiological parameters such as blood pressure, heart rate and oral temperature before and after eight hours of work were taken using standard and systemic method. Each workstation environment parameters such as average WBGT and relative humidity was measured using QUESTemp ᵒ34 Thermal Environment Monitor. Heat Strain Stress Index (HSSI) questionnaire that developed by Dehghan et al., (2013) was used to identify the level of heat stress among workers. From the study that was conducted, the average WBGT in boiler, press station, sterilizer, loading ramp, bunch press and oil room are 27.99, 32.42, 28.38, 28.54, 27.86, and 28.58 respectively while relative humidity are 74.68%, 58.14%, 78.83%, 64.81%, 77.03%, and 70.00% respectively. Paired sample t-test on physiological parameters between before and after eight hours shows significant different between it. As for HSSI score, the mean scores for green, yellow and red zone are 8.96, 16.04 and 19.36 respectively. According to correlation test between average WBGT with physiological changes and HSSI, fair to good correlation were achieved. However correlation between physiological changes and HSSI shows fair correlation achieve for systolic pressure and heart rate only. The finding of this study shows that workers at risk of heat stress. So control measure is required to prevent this problem.