Prioritizing factors associated with thermal stresses imposed on workers in steel and iron casting industries using the Monte Carlo simulation and sensitivity analysis.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to develop approaches for monitoring and prioritizing factors associated with thermal stresses imposed on workers in iron and steel casting industries, and to eventually purpose effective control strategies.

Methods: The whole study was completed in the furnace areas of two steel casting and two iron casting plants, where the air temperature (Ta), radiant temperature (Tr), air velocity (Va) and partial water vapor pressure (Pa) were measured continuously during two consecutive work cycles. Simultaneously, the metabolic rates (M) of all workers in the furnace area were also measured.

Evaluating the efficacy of a thermal exposure chamber designed for assessing workers' thermal hazard.

This study was conducted on a thermal exposure chamber designed for assessing workers' thermal hazard. In order to assess the efficacy of the studied chamber, three environmental conditions were selected to simulate high, middle and low thermal impact situations, with air temperatures (Ta) of 43.12, 36.