Influence of the Thermal Environment on Occupational Health and Safety in Automotive Industry: A Case Study

Constanța Rînjea, Oana Roxana Chivu, Doru-Costin Darabont, Anamaria Ioana Feier, Claudia Borda, Marilena Gheorghe and Dan Florin Nitoi
Additional contact information
Constanța Rînjea: Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Robotics, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Splaiul Independenței Nr. 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Oana Roxana Chivu: Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Robotics, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Splaiul Independenței Nr. 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Doru-Costin Darabont: National Research and Development Institute of Occupational Safety[—]INCDPM “Alexandru Darabont” Bucharest, 35A Ghencea Blvd., 061692 Bucharest, Romania
Anamaria Ioana Feier: Materials and Manufacturing Engineering Department, Politehnica University Timișoara, Bd. Mihai Viteazu Nr. 1, 300222 Timișoara, Romania
Claudia Borda: Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Robotics, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Splaiul Independenței Nr. 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Marilena Gheorghe: Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Robotics, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Splaiul Independenței Nr. 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Dan Florin Nitoi: Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Robotics, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Splaiul Independenței Nr. 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 14, 1-13

Abstract: Considering thermal environment aspects have a major impact not only on occupational health and safety (OH&S) performance but also on the productivity and satisfaction of the workers, the aim of the case study was to assess the thermal comfort of a group of 33 workers in an automotive industry company, starting with collecting data about the thermal environment from different workplaces, continuing with the analytical determination and interpretation of thermal comfort using the calculation of the Predicted Mean Vote ( PMV ) and Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied ( PPD ) indices, according to provisions of the standard ISO 7730:2005, and comparing the results with the subjective perception of the workers revealed by applying individual questionnaires. The results of the study represent an important input element for establishing the preventive and protective measures for the analysed workplaces in correlation with the measures addressing other specific risks and, also, could serve as a model for extending and applying to other similar workplaces in future studies. Moreover, the mathematical model and the software instrument used for this study case could be used in further similar studies on larger groups of workers and in any industrial domain.

Keywords: occupational health and safety; ergonomics; thermal environment; human thermal comfort; automotive industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/14/8572/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/14/8572/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:14:p:8572-:d:862306

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().