Abstract
In Brazil, conventional construction sites processes prevail, where the workers develop outdoor activities and are exposed to environment variables, which, along with the personal variables – metabolic rate and clothing – may cause heat stress. This article evaluates the heat exposure that workers with outside activities on concrete slabs during the construction of buildings in the city of Campinas, state of São Paulo, in Southeastern Brazil. For the data collection, the analysis and exposure evaluation it was used the norms ISO 7243, ISO 8996, ISO 9920 and the Norma Regulamentadora Brasileira (NR5) that foresees the tolerated limits of heat exposure. It was analyzed the Wet Bulb Globe Thermometer Index (WBGT) along with the metabolic rate estimated of 40 exposed construction workers. The results show that, in every season of the year there is the necessity of heat exposure monitoring to avoid health damage to the construction workers’ health.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ministério da Previdência Social (Brazilian Ministry of Social Security): Anuário Estatístico (Statistical Yearbook) (2017). http://www.previdencia.gov.br/saude-e-seguranca-do-trabalhador/estatisticas-de-saude-e-seguranca-no-trabalho/. Accessed 19 Oct 2018
International Standardization for Organization - ISO 7243: Hot environments - Estimation of the heat stress on working man, based on the WBGT-index (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature), British Standard, Geneva, Switzerland, 26 p. (1989)
International Standardization for Organization - ISO 7730: Ergonomics of the Thermal Environment—Analytical Determination and Interpretation of Thermal Comfort using Calculation of the PMV and PPD indices and local thermal comfort criteria, Genève, Switzerland, 64 p. (2005)
Guyton, A.C., Hall, J.E.: Human Physiology & Mechanisms of Disease. Sauders, USA (1996)
Grandjean, E., Kroemer, K.H.E.: Fitting the Task to the Human. A Text of Occupational Ergonomics. Taylor & Francis, London (1997)
American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. TL’S and BI’S: Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances, Physical Agents and Biological Exposure Indices, ACGIH, Cincinnati, USA, 272 p. (2010)
Morabito, M., Grifoni, D., Crisci, A., Fibbi, L., Orlandini, S., Gensini, G.F., Zipoli, G.: Might outdoor heat stress be considered a proxy for the unperceivable effect of the ultraviolet-induced risk of erythema in florence? J. Photoch. Photobiol. Biol. 130, 338–348 (2014)
Jia, Y.A., Rowlinson, S., Ciccarelli, M.: Climatic and psychosocial risks of heat illness incidents on construction site. Appl. Erg. Part A 53, 25–35 (2016)
Norma Regulamentadora Brasileira– NR15- Atividade e operações insalubres. Portaria n. 3214, de 8 de junho de 1978 (Brazilian Regulatory Norm - NR15), Brasília, Brazil (1978). http://www.mte.gov.br. Accessed Oct 2018
International Standardization for Organization. ISO 8996: Ergonomics of the Thermal Environment. Determination of Metabolic Rate, Genève, Switzerland, 34 p. (2004)
Amorim, A.E.B., Labaki, L.C., Maia, P.A., Barros, T.M.S., Monteiro, L.R.: Quality of wet bulb globe thermometer index (WBGT) data collected from automatic instruments in external environment. In: 17th Encontro Nacional de Tecnologia no Ambiente Construído (National Meeting of Technology in the Built Environment), Antac, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2018)
International Standardization for Organization - ISO 9920: Ergonomics of the thermal environment—Estimation of thermal insulation and water vapor resistance of a clothing ensemble, Genève, Switzerland, 114 p. (2009)
Ruas, A.C.: Systematization of thermal comfort evaluation in built environments and their application in Software, These (Ph.D.)-University of Campinas, Brazil, 196 p. (2002). http://libdigi.unicamp.br/document/. Accessed 26 Sep 2005
Wong, D.P.L., Chung, J.W.Y., Chan, A.P.C., Wong, F.K.W., Yi, W.: Comparing the physiological and perceptual responses of construction workers in a hot environment. Appl. Erg. 45(6), 1705–1711 (2014)
Parsons, K.: Heat stress Standard ISO 7243 and its global application. Ind. Health 44(3), 368–379 (2006)
British Standards: BS 7963- Ergonomics of the Thermal Environment—Guide to the Assessment of Heat Strain in Workers Wearing Personal Protective Equipment, BSI, London, 28 p. (2000)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Amorim, A., Labaki, L., Maia, P., Barros, T., Marcelo, A. (2020). Occupational Exposure to Heat in Outdoor Activities in Building Constructions in Southeastern Brazil. In: Arezes, P. (eds) Advances in Safety Management and Human Factors. AHFE 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 969. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20497-6_37
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20497-6_37
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-20496-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20497-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)