The effects of ambient temperature on physiological parameters among palm oil mil workers in Selancar, Pahang / Nadia Syahira Badrul Hisham

Introduction: The increasing number of palm oil plantation in Malaysia has given a large opportunity for the people to work in palm oil industry. Heat stress can occur due to the hot temperature especially to those who works near the furnaces. Palm oil mill is one of the work environment which the workers exposed to the high temperature. Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of ambient temperature on physiological parameters (body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate) among palm oil mill workers in Selancar, Pahang. Methodology: A total of 52 workers were selected and physiological monitoring was conducted before, during and after 8 hours of work. Results: The result indicates that most of the workstations have exceeded TLV by ACGIH except for boiler and kernel plant. However, the mean reading for physiological parameters were within the normal range except for blood pressure. There were no significant relationship between physiological parameters between before, during and after 8 hours of work except for body temperature. There were also no significant differences between ambient temperature and physiological parameters before and after work (p>0.05). Conclusion: Although most of the measured ambient temperatures were above ACGIH TLV but there were no significant relationship between ambient temperatures with all tested physiological parameters (body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate). Therefore, the null hypothesis (H₀) failed to be rejected.