Physical Workload in Boiler Operations - Essay Example

These were used as indicators for quantifying physical labor that such operators experienced. In this case, Justino et al (4) had to use a number of instruments to measure the heart rate, places of higher overload, pain in certain parts of the operators’ body, and physical workload. These instruments included heart rate monitor, which was utilized to measure the heart rate, the tape measure for marking the key points where operators of the boiler remained during the process of boiler operation, the Infrared digital camera for showing the areas that experienced a higher incidence of thermal radiations within the body of operators, the heart rate meter for recording the operator’s heartbeat, the painful Areas Diagram and Nordic questionnaire for collecting information regarding pain experienced by operators, and the wet-bulb globe thermometer (WBGT) for recording thermal temperatures, which in turn helped ascertain places of higher thermal overload.

To measure pain, a diagram, in this case, the human body was divided into 24 segments. Was followed was to evaluate these body parts to ascertain areas that the operators experienced pain. This was done by evaluating subjectively, with the use of a scale ranging from zero to seven, the level of discomfort experienced in each of the 24 segments. In measuring the heartbeats, the heart rate meter, which consisted of three parts: transmitter, digital pulse receiver, and an electrode elastic strap, was used.

This way, a transmitter was fixed in the chest of the operator to enable the heartbeats to be captured and stored within the wrist receiver. In order to ascertain which parts of the body experienced higher thermal overload, a tape measure was used to mark key areas that an operator remained while carrying out the boiling operations. The wet-bulb globe thermometer (WBGT) was then used to determine the temperature of areas that experienced a thermal overload. Finally, the Tukey test was used to ascertain the differences in thermic exposure between exposure areas and rest areas.

Other important parameters included the operator’s weight, height, and age. These three parameters were important because they were used to calculate the Body Mass Index of the operator. This study revealed that physical activities in boilers cause the varied intensity of pains in various body parts. This pain as revealed in this study is caused by excessive heat exposure and loading of weight. This causes diseases and muscle fatigue. It became evident that to feed the boiler great effort is needed.

The study, therefore, concluded that boiler-related physical labor may lead to muscle fatigue, diseases, and pains of varying intensities, due to exposure to heat, and excessive weight.