Studying the Rate of Heat Stress in Bakers

Background &Aims of the Study: Nowadays heat stress is one of the most current harmfulphysical agents in workplaces. Attentions to recognized consequences of heat stress andhave no information about heat stress in Ardabil bakeries, this study have been done in2013.Materials & Methods: This cross sectional research has been done in 96 different breadtypes bakeries in Ardabil. Among 301 bakeries in Ardabil city, 96 of them have beenselected by stratified random sampling method. These 96 bakeries include 32 Barbaricbakeries, 45 Lavash, 15 Sangak and 4 special bakeries. To determine heat stress, WBGTindex and WBGT meter made of Casella Company have been used.Results: Mean of total WBGT index in oven workstation and kneader workstation showedthis index in traditional Barbaric, Lavash, Sangak, respectively was more than specialbakeries. Special bakeries have least heat stress among other bakeries. This study showed80.2% of workers in oven workstation and kneader workstation had heat stress.Conclusions: According to results of this study can state indoor WBGT index in specialbakeries with least level of heat stress is better than other bakeries and traditional Barbaricidentified as most unsuitable place. Workers in traditional bakeries exposed to heat stress.

Keywords:

Heat StressWBGTBakers