Safety and health risks for workers exposed to cold thermal environments: A frozen food processing industry perspective.

Background: Environmental temperatures in the fresh food industry vary from 0°C to 10°C, and go below -20°C for the frozen food industry, representing risk for the health and safety of workers involved.

Objective: The aim of this work was to evaluate the cold thermal stress risks for workers working in a frozen food industry.

Methods: A total of 27 acclimatized workers (13 male and 14 female) participated in a study which was conducted during 11 working days.