Assessment of thermal comfort in a Portuguese metalworking industry

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Thermal discomfort is mentioned as one of the major causes of dissatisfaction in workplaces when people are exposed to extremely hot or cold thermal environments in the industrial context. Studies evaluating the comfort of the thermal environment are becoming increasingly important, but this kind of studies is time-consuming and it becomes expensive and difficult to implement for many organizations. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate thermal comfort in a metalworking industry located in Portugal, applying user-friendly thermal indexes supported by real data collected using inexpensive measuring tools. METHODS: To this end, this study was conducted using objective measurements of air temperature T (◦C), and relative humidity RH (%), collected using a pen data acquisition (Easy Log USB). Simultaneously, subjective answers about the perception of thermal comfort by the workers in the section studied were collected based on a questionnaire survey. RESULTS: The results revealed a high risk of heat stress for some workstations, which required the intervention of the Health and Safety Department. CONCLUSIONS: The indexes applied in this work, namely the WMO diagram and the EsConTer index, offer a sound model for thermal stress risk evaluation, minimizing difficult and time-consuming investigations to identify thermal comfort problems in workplaces, each emphasizing particular aspects, in order to create value.