Abstract
Heat can have varied impacts especially on workers who need to perform their duties for long hours under the heat of the sun. This paper evaluates the thermal comfort of traffic enforcers in Pasig City and determines its impacts on their work, safety, and health. Quantitative data on external factors such as air temperature, wind speed, UV index, and relative humidity, as well as qualitative information on internal factors such as the perceived level of physical activity and clothing comfortability were gathered and analyzed to determine their influence on the overall thermal comfort of the MMDA traffic enforcers. Interviews with traffic enforcers were conducted. The results showed that some of these factors do not favor thermal comfort. Some recommendations were given to help improve the traffic enforcers thermal comfort during the performance of their work.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Harlan, S., Brazel, A., Prashad, L., Stefanov, W., Larsen, L.: Neighborhood microclimates and vulnerability to heat stress. Soc. Sci. Med. 63, 2847–2863 (2006)
Ramsey, J., Burford, C., Beshir, Y., Jensen, R.: Effects of workplace thermal conditions on safe work behavior. J. Saf. Res. 14, 105–114 (1983)
Kjellstrom, T., Holmer, I., Lemke, B.: Workplace Heat Stress, Healthy and Productivity—an Increasing Challenge for Low and Middle-Income Countries During Climate Change, Global Health Action (2009). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799237/
Xiang, J., Bi, P., Pisaniello, D., Hansen, D.: Health impacts of workplace heat exposure: an epidemiological review. Ind. Health 52, 91–101 (2017)
The Business Mirror website (2017). https://businessmirror.com.ph/getting-hotter/
Mildred, S.: The Philippine News Feed website (2017). https://newsfeed.ph/news/alarming-heat-stress/
Brizuela, M.: The Philippine Daily Inquirer website (2017). http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/773370/traffic-aides-street-sweepers-to-observe-heat-break-starting-mar-25#ixzz4ts9Mny9c
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration website (2017). https://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3154.pdf
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention website (2017). https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/faq.html
The SafeWork NSW website (2017). http://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/51832/Heat-stress-FAQs.pdf
Lee, J., Shirreffs, S., Maughan, R.: Cold drink ingestion improves exercise endurance capacity in the heat. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 40, 1637–1644 (2008)
The Mulberrys website (2017). https://www.mulberryscleaners.com/stay-cool-4-best-fabrics-summer/
The Health and Safety Executive website (2017). http://www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/thermal/factors.htm
Candido, C., de Dear, R., Lamberts, R., Bittencourt, L.: Air movement acceptability limits and thermal comfort in Brazil’s hot humid climate zone. Build. Environment. 45, 222–229 (2010)
Vanicek, K., Frei, T., Litynska, Z., Schmalwieser, A.: The ResearchGate website (2017). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288523666_UV-Index_for_the_Public
The US Environmental Protection Agency website (2017). https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/uviguide.pdf
Havenith, G., Holmér, I., Parsons, K.: Personal factors in thermal comfort assessment: clothing properties and metabolic heat production. Energy and Build. 34, 581–591 (2002)
The World Weather Climate Information website (2017). https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Wind-speed,Manila,Philippines
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of the twenty Pasig City MMDA traffic enforcers who preferred to remain anonymous for candidly sharing with us their personal observations on their work environments in order to make this research study possible.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this paper
Cite this paper
Alquiros, N.A., Bernales, J.J., Dakay, P., Galang, I.J., Olmos, E., Sedilla, K. (2019). Thermal Comfort Assessment of Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Traffic Enforcers in Pasig City, Philippines. In: Arezes, P. (eds) Advances in Safety Management and Human Factors. AHFE 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 791. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94589-7_39
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94589-7_39
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94588-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94589-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)