406-410The objective of this study was to determine heat
exposure on palm oil mill workers and its effect on physiological changes in
them. Parameters considered environmental temperature, relative humidity,
metabolic workload, body core temperature, blood pressure and heart rate. The
average time of monitoring was 2 hrs for intermittent exposure and 8 hrs for
overall exposure. Workers were exposed to moderate heat stress during this
study period. There were significant differences between heat exposure and
physiological changes before shift and after working for 2 hrs and 8 hrs,
respectively. Metabolic workload of respondents in medium work category was
200-350 kcal/hr in respect to ACGIH level. Overall heat exposure levels in all
divs. in this palm oil mills were found unsuitable for working duration of 8
hrs a day. This study also found that the WBGTin value exceeded the limit of
ACGIH for a medium workload category (75% work, 25% rest). Ideally, every area
in each division requires individuals to work for 50% of the time and rest for
50% of time for each working shift