The effect on heart rate and rating of perceived exertion in Radiant environment of a steel rolling mill

A study was conducted to investigate the effect of wearing protective clothing on heart rate (HR) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) in the radiant environment of billet cutting section of steel rolling mill situated in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Workers in steel rolling mill perform billet cutting operation in three shifts i.e. Shift-I (6 am -2 pm), shift-II (2 pm -10 pm) and shift-III (10 pm -6 am). All variables were measured continuously during actual billet cutting operation. The radiant environment consists of different combinations of dry bulb temperature (42–54°C), wet bulb temperature (30–35°C) and globe temperature (54–65°C). The mean radiant temperature and effective radiant heat flow in the workers vicinity during the task comes out to be 84–92.34 0C and 408–493.43 W/m2 respectively. Physiological measurements have been undertaken during the physical activity carried out during the billet cutting task with and without Protective clothing in the radiant environment. Mean heart rate of subjects with and without protective clothing comes out to be 92 beats/min and 89 beats/min respectively. Mean rating of perceived exertion (RPE) increased from 8 to 9 while using protective clothing. The increase in RPE under protective clothing may account for the reluctance of individuals to wear clothing at work and