Shannon Smith from SaferMe covers the basics of heat related illness for outdoor and construction crews: how to recognize heat exhaustion, heat stroke and heat cramps, and the controls that prevent them. The talk stresses that heat stroke is a medical emergency, that clothing and PPE trap heat, and that shade, water, electrolytes and smarter scheduling keep work going safely through summer.
Key takeaways
- Heat exhaustion signs: sudden headache, nausea, pale or clammy skin, cramps, dizziness. Move out of the sun and rest at the first symptoms.
- Heat stroke can kill and can come on without warning signs; hot red skin with no sweating, confusion or seizures means call emergency services immediately.
- Water alone is not enough; salty snacks, salt tablets or sports drinks keep electrolytes up.
- Long sleeves, reinforced pants and PPE all trap heat; rotate workers on shorter shifts when full PPE is required.
- Set up shade structures and air conditioned break areas, and schedule heavy work outside the hottest hours.
Heat is a silent killer in the workplace and on the job site, causing people to suddenly collapse and fail to recover at hospital.
Only immediate emergency treatment can save the life of someone experiencing heat stroke.
The SafetyTalker take
Run this talk before the first hot week of the season, not after it. The practical takeaway for supervisors is that heat controls are scheduling and logistics decisions: shade, rotation, start times and stocked coolers, which are all things the foreman controls, not the worker.
Full transcript
Read the full transcript
Welcome to another episode of Safety Toolbox Talks with me, Shannon Smith, from Safer Me. In today’s Toolbox Talk, we’re going to be talking about heat stress. While heat waves are making news in 2021, construction workers and other professionals are exposed to heat stress risks every summer. Heat is a silent killer in the workplace and on the job site, causing people to suddenly collapse and fail to recover at hospital. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, heat injuries affect nearly 2,500 workers in 2019. Preparing for the heat starts before the workday begins. Staying hydrated and wearing the right clothing can go a long way in protecting workers from heat stress.
However, you may need to change your work patterns as well during heat waves where temperatures peak. Heat does more than just make you sweat, which is an essential part of staying cool. When your body’s natural cooling abilities are overwhelmed by heat and humidity, your internal temperature rises. This causes mild to serious heat-related illnesses, or HRI. Let’s talk about a couple of those. Heat exhaustion. Heat exhaustion is less serious than heat stroke, but it still requires treatment and attention to avoid permanent damage. It occurs because you have either become dehydrated or are low on sodium or salts inside the body.
Signs of this include nausea, headache, especially coming on suddenly, pale or clammy skin, muscle cramps, dizziness, fainting and vomiting. If these things are happening to you, what you need to do is move out of the sun and rest any time you experience early symptoms of heat exhaustion. An upset stomach tends to occur when you drink plenty of water but don’t have enough salt and other electrolytes in your system. Salt tablets, salty snacks and sport drinks can all help provide enough sodium to keep heat exhaustion at bay. Heat stroke is the more serious HRI that can kill. However, even non-fatal cases of heat stroke can still leave you with permanent organ damage, including the brain.
You don’t have to show any warning signs of heat exhaustion before progressing to this stage. It can come on suddenly, especially if you are dehydrated, impaired in your ability to sweat or exposed to sudden swings in temperatures. The symptoms of heat stroke are a lack of sweating despite the heat, bright red skin that is hot to touch, flushed appearance in the face and chest, disorientation, confusion or anger, extreme headache that may cause visual distortion, higher than usual body temperature, seizures or muscle spasms and partial or full loss of consciousness. Only immediate emergency treatment can save the life of someone experiencing heat stroke.
So you need to call 911 or whatever the emergency number is in your country at the first sign of this condition and follow their instructions to safely begin cooling the worker down until an ambulance arrives. People can also experience heat cramps. Heat cramps are muscle cramps that are caused specifically by the dehydrating and salt depleting effects of hot weather. As you sweat, your muscles lose the water and the salt they need to perform. Even drinking plenty of water and sports drinks will only replenish your system so quickly. Working too hard or too quickly can leave you experiencing a muscle cramp that could be dangerous in a high-pressure construction or manufacturing setting.
Taking breaks may slow workflow slightly but will keep going far smoother than stopping to deal with heat, exhaustions or cramps. Clothing plays an important role. Clothing and personal protection equipment, PPE, plays a major role in HRI on the job site. Many workers adapt to hazards or discomfort of work by wearing long-sleeved shirts and heavily reinforced work pants. These layers all trap heat and make it harder to cool yourself while working. PPE also tends to trap heat and concentrate the risks of a HRI even when the helmets, respirators and other equipment are designed for hot weather use.
It may be necessary to use to use more workers on shorter shifts to give everyone breaks from wearing PPE as they rotate in and out of the work area. Other adaptions to work patterns can greatly reduce HRI risk for construction workers. First, set up temporary shade structures or concentrate work areas in shaded areas. Don’t cut materials or assemble parts in the sun if shade is available. Pop up worksite cabins and offices that include air conditioning are recommended as break areas. These areas can save lives when workers are overcome with heat exhaustion or heat stroke, but they should also be available regularly for heat stress prevention.
Finally, try to schedule work so that the hottest hours of the day see as little work as possible. Starting before sunrise or even moving to an overnight schedule can make all the difference in a hot climate. Don’t let heat stress become a silent danger on your work site. With a generous supply of water, a steady source of salt and other electrolytes and a place to get out of the heat, construction work can safely continue throughout the summer. You’ve been listening to the Safety Toolbox Talks by SaferMe. SaferMe is easy to use safety software for your business. It includes a whole lot of really handy digital safety forms, risk registers, contact tracing solutions and a whole lot more.
If you’re trying to make the digital transformation for safety in your business, then give us a crack. Head to Safer.me
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