Multiple physical stress exposures of sailors on several ships - a longitudinal study

Abstract

Tthis paperdescribes how a series of stressors (temperature, humidity, noise, whole body vibration and hand-arm vibration) act on the discomfort of sailors, implicitly on the performance of their work. Until now, the effects of stress caused by various external factors on the working capacity of sailors have not been studied in detail. Experiments have been made on sailors (36 men) on several Danube vessels, two tugs, two push-tug boats and a push boat, during the day (max. 15 hours) and at night (max. 13 h), during summer (max. 320C outside) and winter (min. -100C outside). We made the following measurements: the temperature and humidity (weather station Kestrel 4000) in the wheelhouse, the sound level (01db Blue Solo sonometer) and the vibrations transmitted to the
whole body (vibrometer Maestro 01 dB). The discomfort was determined using the Likert scale. The tests of human performances were analyzed with the Semmes-Weinstein test and the Purdue Pegboard test. In the wheelhouse we measured: temperature (max. 340C min. 50C), humidity (max. 87% - min. 54%), sound level (max. 96dB min. 84dB), whole body vibration (max. 7,4m/s2 min. 2,7m/s2) and hand-arm vibration (max. 6,2m/s2 min. 2,3m/s2) on all segments. Even if the subjects did not report any discomfort, tests have indicated that they have suffered a great discomfort. Following the determinations, it can be stated that there is a significant difference between the obtained results and the values indicated by the European Directives. Sailors work in very difficult conditions. There are many ways to decrease the sailors' discomfort, but they require special financial efforts that Romania has not yet made.