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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.

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Brazil is the world's leading poultry meat exporter since 2004. The poultry slaughtering workers are exposed to risk factors for work-related upper limb musculoskeletal disorders, such as repetitiveness, high frequency of technical actions, forceful exertions, inadequate posture, insufficient time for recovery, use of tools and exposure to cold temperatures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risks associated with the repetitive movements of upper limbs in different tasks performed in a poultry slaughterhouse. In the poultry slaughterhouse 1,200 workers slaughtered 100,000 chickens per day during two work shifts. Ten percent of the company's employees were evaluated during the execution of work tasks, using the OCRA Checklist method. Each worker was filmed for a period of 5 minutes. The Student t-test (SPSS 17.0) was used, adopting p≤ 0.05, in order to compare the risk variable between the sides of the body. The 30 work activities analyzed were from the following sectors: packing (n=12); cutting (n=11); evisceration (n=3); reception (n=2); chiller (n=1); and freezing tunnels (n=1). The average of occupational repetitive actions performed by poultry workers was 64.4±16.1 per minute, representing 9 points in the OCRA's scale (0 to 10 points scale). The average score of OCRA's checklist of all the workstations analyzed was 22.7±5.6 points (moderate risk). The Checklist scores for the right upper limbs (average 22.5 -moderate risk) were significantly higher (p = 0.033) than the left upper limbs (mean of 21.7 -moderate risk), representing a higher risk for the right side of the body. Considering the five risk categories proposed by the OCRA Method, 11 work tasks (37%) were considered high risk, and 19 (63%) presented moderate risk. It is concluded that the majority of the slaughterhouse workers were vulnerable to ergonomic hazards by repetitive movements and to a greater probability of developing upper limb work-related musculoskeletal disorders (>21.5% probability for high risk and 10.8 to 21.5% for moderate risk).

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Introduction: Muscle fatigue can be defined as a decrease in the performance of the neuromuscular system in generating force. This situation is considered a complex physiological process involving various body systems, in order to avoid irreversible damage or even cell death. Objective: The aim of this study was to measure muscle strength in order to assess the level of fatigue among footwear industry workers, and to determine a possible correlation between muscle strength and the perception of reported fatigue. Materials and Methods: The study included 32 male workers from the footwear industry with a mean age of 34.63 ± 11.98 years. The workers performed the handgrip strength test using a handheld dynamometer, and completed the Bipolar Fatigue Questionnaire. Results: The mean result of strength testing was 23.1 ± 8.3 kgf, and the mean score of the fatigue questionnaire was 2.28 ± 0.93 points. However, a low correlation was observed between the results of the fatigue questionnaire and the strength test results. Conclusion: The grip strength results of the footwear workers were below the values for the general Brazilian population, a fact that may indicate potential muscle fatigue. However, a low correlation with the perception of fatigue was indicated by the questionnaire.