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Brazil was rated the fourth leading producer and exporter of pork meat in the world. The aim of this study was to evaluate the temperature of the hands of pig slaughterhouse workers and its relation to the thermal sensation of the hands and the use of a cutting tool. The study included 106 workers in a pig slaughterhouse. An infrared camera FlirThermaCAM E320 (Flir Systems, Wilsonville, OR, USA) was used to collect the images of the dorsal and palmar surfaces of both hands. A numerical scale was used to obtain the thermal sensation. Chi-square test, Pearson correlation and Student’s t test or Wilcoxon were used (p ≤ 0.05). The majority of workers felt cold in the hands (66%) and workers who used the knife felt the coldest. There was an association between the thermal sensation and the use of knife (p = 0.001). Workers who used the tool showed correlation between the thermal sensation and the temperatures of the left fingers, with a difference between the temperatures of the right and left hands of those who used the knife (p ≤ 0.05). The hands (left) that manipulated the products presented the lowest temperatures. Findings indicate that employers of pig slaughterhouses should provide gloves with adequate thermal insulation to preserve the health of workers’ hands.

Brazil has the main producers and exporters of chicken meat, which is classified as the third largest world chicken meat producer and lead exporter. This study aimed at analyzing the body discomfort perception in poultry slaughterhouse workers and its associations with the task characteristics. The study included 290 workers, 200 women (34.7±7.7 years) and 90 men (36.8±8.2 years). A body map for evaluating discomfort and an interview regarding organizational issues and criteria of the OCRA method were used. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test (p0.05) were used. It was found that 87.6% of respondents performed repetitive tasks, 86.2% performed rest breaks, 82.8% performed job rotation (2-7 tasks) and 61% used tools. It was also found that 67.2% felt discomfort in at least one body region, and the symptoms most often reported were pain, fatigue and tingling. The body regions most frequently cited were: shoulders (62.6%), neck (46.2%), spine (36.4%), forearms (31.3%), arms (29.2%), wrists (25.6%) and hands (25.6%). In sectors artificially cold (n=204), 54.1% felt cold. There was no association between body discomfort and gender, task characteristics, performance of rest breaks and job rotation, use of tools and time working in the company; however, there was association with cold perception (p=0.035).

This study analyzed the finger temperatures of poultry slaughterhouse workers and its association with personal and organizational variables, bodily discomfort perception, and cold thermal sensation. The study included 143 poultry slaughterhouse workers. A thermograph was used to measure finger temperature and an interview to collect worker data. There were two groups: workers who used a tool and those without. The binary logistic regression, Friedman and Wilcoxon tests were used (p ≤ 0.05). Most workers presented at least one finger with an average temperature ≤15 °C (66.4%) and ≤24 °C (99.3%), perceived their cold hands, and wore three overlapping gloves (57.3%). There were no associations between finger temperatures (≤15 °C) and the analyzed variables. The chance of feeling cold for a worker who used a tool was greater than for a worker who did not (OR = 3.19, 95% CI 1.46; 6.94). There was a difference between the finger temperatures of each hand on both surfaces and the analyzed groups (p < 0.01). The temperature of each finger with its respective contralateral was different in the little fingers (no tool), index, middle, ring, and little fingers (using a tool) (p < 0.05). The use of several overlapping gloves was not sufficient to promote thermal insulation of the hands.

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