Associate Professor of Occupational Medicine, Department of Public Health, College of Public Health, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
PLoS One. 2022 Sep 16;17(9):e0274782. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274782. eCollection 2022.
The aim of this study was to determine the hematological changes associated with heat exposure in a population of bakers.
Personal information was collected using a questionnaire, and a venous blood sample was drawn at the end of a work shift from the bakers and from a control group. The average wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index was measured in the workplaces of both the bakers and the controls.
This cross-sectional study involved 137 bakers working in 20 bakeries and 107 controls who were comparable in terms of likely confounding factors. Hemoglobin and platelet values were abnormal among the bakers and statistically significantly different to the control group (P = 0.026, and P = 0.016 respectively). The average WBGT index in the bakeries was 37.4°C, while the average WBGT in the workplaces of the controls was 25.5°C, (P<0.0001).
The changes in the bakers' hematological parameters were found to be associated with exposure to high environmental heat at bakeries, as measured by the WBGT index. Preventive measures should be introduced to reduce the adverse effect of heat exposure among bakers and directed toward the worker-equipment-environment triad.
本研究旨在确定暴露于高温环境下的面包师人群的血液学变化。
采用问卷收集个人信息，并在面包师和对照组的工作班次结束时采集静脉血样。测量面包师和对照组工作场所的平均湿球黑球温度（WBGT）指数。
本横断面研究涉及 20 家面包店的 137 名面包师和 107 名对照组，两组在可能的混杂因素方面具有可比性。血红蛋白和血小板值在面包师中异常，与对照组相比有统计学差异（P=0.026 和 P=0.016）。面包店的平均 WBGT 指数为 37.4°C，而对照组工作场所的平均 WBGT 指数为 25.5°C（P<0.0001）。
WBGT 指数表明，面包师血液学参数的变化与面包店环境高温暴露有关。应采取预防措施，减少面包师高温暴露的不良影响，针对工人-设备-环境三联体。
