CARDIAC OUTPUT, BLOOD COMPOSITION AND LUNG FUNCTION IN WORKERS WITH DIFFERENT WORKLOADS UNDER OUT AND INDOOR CONDITIONS

Abstract

The present research work was carried with the objective to assess the impact of thermal environment (indoors/outdoors) on the health workers carrying different workloads (heavy, moderate, light) at indoor factories and outdoor in building construction.  The number of each group with different workloads were done according to a certain formula adressing 18, 13, and 10 for heavy, moderate and light work respectively for outdoor workers, for indoor the numbers were 10, 15 and 23 respectively. The control number were 12 for each either outdoor or indoor, being selected from employees at the National Health Laboratory. Physiological measurements included: heamtocrit profile, blood electrolytes and blood metabolites, heart, pulse rates and lung function. For out and indoor groups pulse rate increased significantly (P <0.01) during and after work than before for heavy and moderate workloads subjects. Radial pulse rate was the highest during work for both heavy (~90 beats/min) and moderate (~85) work  than before or after work for heavy (~84)  and moderate work (~60). For light group work or control the changes were not significant and within the range of 78 - 82 beats/min for outdoor conditions. For indoor conditions, similar trends were observed where pulse rate was the highest during work for both heavy (~66) and moderate (~83) groups than before or after work  for heavy (range~60) and moderate (range ~66) with significant differences (P <0.05)for both out and indoor groups. Systolic blood pressure before, during and after for subjects with different workloads for outdoor workers did not differed significantly for both outdoor and indoor groups and within the range of 113 - 123mmHg, while the diastolic blood pressure showed a range 74 - 84mmHg.

For outdoor study, 35% of the heavy workload group showed normal lung function, 21% showed mild restriction and moderate restriction, 7% moderate and 14% severe restriction. 50% of the group carrying moderate workload, suffered mild lung, and 25% showed normal lung function. 40% of the group carrying light work showed mild lung restriction and 30% normal lung function. 72% of the control group showed mild lung restriction and 18% showed moderate lung function. For indoor the heavy workload group; 33% showed mild restriction 44% moderate restriction and 11% severe restriction. 13% of the group carrying moderate workload showed normal function, 26% suffered mild lung, and 33% showed moderate restriction. 38% of the group carrying light work showed normal lung restriction, 15% mild and 46% moderate restriction

For haemogram profile, significant differences were only obtained for HCT and eosinophils where HCT was lower for outdoor group carrying moderate workload (38.98%) and for both moderate (41.67%) and light (45.12%) workload groups under indoor conditions.  Eosinophils were significantly (P <0.01) higher in the moderate (7.17%) workload group under indoor which was above the normal range (1 - 6). Creatinine decreased significantly (P <0.05) with heavy  workload at bot outdoor (0.83mg/dl) and indoor (0.93mg/dl). Creatinine (mg/dl) decreased significantly (P) with both heavy (0.85) and moderate (0.77) workload for outdoors. Same trend was obtained for indoors for both heavy (0.93) and moderate (0.88). urea, total protein and serum concentrations fell within the normal levels with no significant differences detected. Comparing creatine Phospho-Kinase (CPK) enzyme between outdoors and indoors, with heavy workload increased significantly  (P <0.01)at outdoor (~540) than indoor (~227), for the moderate workload the differences were significant  (P <0.01) with outdoor showing higher (412) levels that indoor (341), also for light workload outdoor conditions showed higher (190) than indoor (173). For electrolytes, K decreased significantly  (P <0.01) with moderate (3.00mmol/l) workload while Ca increased significantly  (P <0.01) with heavy (11.11mg/dl) for outdoors. For indoors K decreased significantly  (P <0.01) heavy (3.03) workload