[Analysis of the holter records in miners working at the deepest located work stations in copper mines of the Legnica-Głogow copper mining district].

BACKGROUND

Microclimate at mining stations consists of numerous parameters, such as air temperature, humidity, air flow velocity and rock temperature. These parameters have an impact on thermal work conditions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The investigation was performed on 71 operators of mining machines from sections G-6 (group I) and G-11 (group II), aged 23-50 years, with mining experience of 7-25 years. One part of operators worked in air-conditioned chambers (subgroups A) and the other in chambers without air-conditioning (subgroups B). The continuous heart rate (HR) recording was taken during the whole shift.

RESULTS

Average values of HR in subgroup B were significantly higher than in subgroup A, especially between 8:00 and 9:00, but the increased HR did not exceed the border line of 140 bpm.

CONCLUSIONS

The results did not show significant deviation in the range of HR in operators working in unfavorable climatic conditions. They demonstrated benefits from using air-conditioned chambers to reduce effects of hot microclimate.