To combat heat stress, employers should make sure their workers are adequately hydrated and their facilities are sufficiently cooled and ventilated. Here are some tips to identify and prevent heat stress.
Read more: Winter Dehydration Facts: Causes, Symptoms and Prevention Tips
Keeping Workers Hydrated
Dehydration is no minor problem in industrial and manufacturing environments. It starts to happen before there are any glaringly obvious symptoms. What’s more, workers often don’t think they are becoming dehydrated if they aren’t hot or sweating profusely. And they typically aren’t thirsty.
The heavy personal protective equipment (PPE) required in industrial and manufacturing settings can drive up body temperatures and induce sweating, as can working in a hot warehouse or production facility. PPE that increases body temperature includes arc flash suits, vests, helmets and gloves.
Dehydration is not solely an issue in the summer. It’s a year-round concern that’s just as likely to be brought on by cold stress as by extreme heat.
Scientific research shows that even mild dehydration (the kind that’s asymptomatic) profoundly affects productivity. It can reduce a worker’s reaction time, which can make the chance of an accident more likely—a dangerous prospect when working in a manufacturing environment or when doing any job that involves operating heavy machinery.
When you sweat, you lose minerals—the electrolytes that are found in your muscle cells: sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. These electrolytes ensure the proper muscle response so that people can operate at peak performance.
Indeed, elevated temperatures make us prone to error, according to a report in Safety+Health magazine, which cites a NASA study that concluded that when the temperature is 95 degrees for an extended period, people can make 60 mistakes per hour—without realizing it. This happens because blood moves to the skin to produce perspiration to cool the body, so other organs, including the brain, receive less blood than they normally need, interfering with cognitive thinking.
Read more: Common Causes of Dehydration—Fact vs. Fallacy
HVAC Cooling and Safe Ventilation
Cooling the air in industrial settings presents some challenges for companies as they seek to put the proper heat hazards and control measures in place and still avoid the potential spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated its guidance on how employers and building managers can ensure proper ventilation in indoor workplaces amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
These measures include steps to increase ventilation safely and keep HVAC systems properly maintained. Steps to consider include:
- Opening outdoor air dampers beyond minimum settings to reduce or eliminate HVAC air recirculation
- Using a window fan, placed safely and securely in a window, to exhaust room air to the outdoors and draw outdoor air into a facility without generating strong room air currents
- Increasing air filtration to the highest possible level without significantly reducing design airflow
- Using portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) fan/filtration systems to enhance air cleaning (especially in higher-risk areas of a facility, such as those inhabited by people with a greater likelihood of having or getting COVID-19)
- Using ultraviolet germicidal irradiation as a supplemental treatment to inactivate the COVID-19 virus, especially if options for increasing room ventilation and filtration are limited
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