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Evaluation of heat stress in an aluminum smelter
Abstract
Workers in the heat-intensive aluminum smelting industry may experience a combination of environmental, metabolic, and personal factors that contribute to heat stress and morbidity. During the summer months of June through August 1998, the level of heat stress and heat strain was evaluated for the aluminum smelter workers at Alcoa, Rockdale Operations. Personal, environmental, and metabolic factors that contribute to heat-related illnesses were identified. The effectiveness of current interventions used to reduce the occurrence of heat-related illnesses were evaluated. It was also intended to determine the relationship between identified risk factors and heat-related morbidity. The defined cohort for this study was comprised of 17 patroon employees working in the four hottest and most physically demanding smelter jobs: ( 1) crust breaking, (2) carbon setting, (3) pulling jacks, and (4) tapping. The level of heat stress exposure for each subject was determined from task analyses and environmental measurements. Heat Strain assessments were based on daily changes in body weight, recovery heart rates at one-minute, recovery oral temperatures at one-minute, average heart rates, and estimated core body temperatures. For all of the selected jobs, the workers were exposed to heat stress above the recommended ACGIH TLVs; however, there were no heat-related illnesses reported during the period of this study. For the entire cohort, there was a 1.6 percent average daily loss in body weight. For the selected jobs, average heart rates, average estimated core body temperatures, and average one-minute recovery oral temperatures showed that heat stress exposures and work demands, on average, were not excessive; however, the higher one-minute recovery heart rates showed that workers were under brief periods of high physiological strain. There were also periods of prolonged core body temperatures of 100.4[]F or greater which is often interpreted as evidence of high levels of heat strain. Current interventions placed in resting areas were positive engineering controls that could help reduce the high cardiovascular strain seen by the high recovery heart rates. These engineering controls could also be important in decreasing core body temperatures.
Description
Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-46).
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Citation
Rose, Stacy Rahkell (1999). Evaluation of heat stress in an aluminum smelter. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1999 -THESIS -R67.
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