Effect of Heat on Underground Mine Workers

Abstract Physical stress of any kind may be thermal, noise, vibrations, objective lighting, improper barometric pressure, ionizing radiation, etc. has a considerable effect on human performance. This deleterious effect is gradual in nature in contrast to machine which cause sudden drop in performance if it gets out of order. In other words there is a graceful degradation of human performance on account of stress. The reason behind this is that human being has marked tolerance for both physical and mental stress. Heat stress is also among such causes which reduces one's efficiency to do work. Heat stress is the sum of all the internal and external heat factors which cause the body to become fatigued and distressed. Internal factors that determine the level of heat stress on the body include core body temperature, acclimatization, natural heat tolerance and metabolic heat generated by the workload. External factors include ambient air temperature, radiant heat, air velocity and humidity. This is a very serious issue not only for mining fraternity but for all the civil and construction works also. Ruling this problem out will help us to improve the quality of work, production capacity as well as workers health.