Thermal Comfort in Hospital Environment - the case of sterilization service

Abstract

Hospitals are peculiar workplaces, designed almost exclusively to the needs of users, giving their workers poor working conditions. The parameters specified in national legislation relating to the thermal environment, are restricted to the values of temperature, humidity and air velocity, recommended by D. L. No 243/86 of 20 August and D. L No 79/2006 of 4 April, respectively. In addition to the legal compliance of legislated thermal parameters, this study aimed to determine levels of thermal comfort, sensations and preferences, from a field study carried out in the sterilization service, of a Hospital from Porto, from July to August 2010. The analytical determination and interpretation of thermal comfort, was based on the assumptions of ISO 7726:1998, ISO 8996:2004 and ISO 7730:2005. Additionally we applied a questionnaire to assess the subjective variables, based on ISO 10551:1995. It was found that the values of air humidity obtained during the week, fell into the range of recommended values (50 to 70%). For the temperature, the values found were higher than recommended (18 to 22 degrees C). With regard to air velocity values obtained at times surpassed the 0.2 m / s recommended. For comfort index, PMV and PPD exceeded in some periods of the week the recommended range of -0.5 to +0.5 and <10%, respectively. The questionnaire showed that at the beginning of the shift 44.7% of workers felt "comfortable". Concerning to the thermal preferences during the same period the majority of employees questioned (39.7%) preferred to keep the environment in the same conditions. Was concluded that, eventually, the indices PMV / PPD may be unsuitable for assess the feelings of comfort in hospitals..