4 Common Summer Hazards Problems and Solutions
Implementing effective heat safety programs and protocols is crucial to protect workers from the increasing risks of summer heat hazards.
- By M.B. Sutherland
- Aug 01, 2024
Summer has always been a risky time for workers in the heat, but with the season getting hotter and longer each year, the risk is greater and the stakes are higher. Is your heat safety program doing all it can to avoid the most common and deadly heat hazards?
Humidity and Variable Temperatures
The Problem:
Workers not only feel worse when it’s humid as well as hot, but they’re at higher risk of heat illness. That’s because humidity can disrupt the cooling effect of sweating by making it harder for moisture to evaporate off the skin. Your local weather report or phone app can give you a general idea of how hot it’s going to be in your area and what the “real feel” temperature will be, based on factors such as humidity, but it can’t tell you what the specific conditions will be in different areas of your jobsite.
Solutions:
• Every jobsite and facility should have at least one wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) monitor. This handy, portable device measures temperature, wind speed, humidity and sun exposure in any given area. This is important because one work area may differ significantly from another due to direct sunlight, shade, machinery that throws off heat, confined spaces and other factors.
• As the day warms, be sure you’re remeasuring all areas so that you know if conditions require a change in break schedule or extra hydration and body cooling. Create a specific plan with new heat mitigation measures that kick in as temperatures rise.
Unprepared Bodies
The Problem:
Just as areas of your site may differ in temperature, individual worker’s bodies will differ too. No two workers will react to the heat the same or have the exact same threshold of illness, and many of them arrive for work unprepared for the heat.
Solutions:
• An incredibly important, and too often overlooked, method of preparing workers for the heat is heat acclimatization. Over 70 percent of deaths in the heat happen on an employee’s first week on the job. It’s crucial to help people prepare their bodies by easing them into working in the heat. That means starting them by working just one to two hours and slowly increasing work time in the heat over subsequent days. This process “teaches” their body to sweat more and can lower their heart rate when they’re hot. Remember that acclimatization is not permanent and needs to be repeated when a worker has been away from the job for any significant amount of time, even just a vacation, or when temperatures spike higher than people have been experiencing.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2024 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.