Heat Stress

Basics

• This Page Aims to go over Heat Stress in the Occupational Hygiene sense of the term, and link to other related pages throughout
• Essentially the additional stress put on the body by hot and/or humid conditions, and how this is taken into account for work

Planning

How Humans Cool Off

• Evaporative Cooling via sweat
• So need (dry) air(flow), as well as need to replenish lost water and electrolytes
  • Although the ‘’it has electrolytes plants crave’’ angle is being stretched by marketers as of recent (RE: Sports Drinks for more detailed information on all that

How Heat Stress Can Be Measured

Subjective

• Check-in’s with workers
• ”Knowing Your Limits
• Can work but quite vulnerable to Power Dynamics in the Workplace / Pressure, although to an extent it still makes sense for even the worst boss to not push workers to ‘’proper’’ Heat Exhaustion due to the day or so of recovery needed etc let alone Heat Stroke

More Quantitative

• Weather Data
  • Weather Prediction/Local Data (Bare Minimum)
    • Can be imperfect due to Microclimates / Urban Heat Island effect etc, also Sampling Rates / If they have the data themselves or just repackage NWS data
  • Nearest Local Weather Station / Crowd Sourced Weather Station Information via Weather Underground (Weather App) etc
  • On Site Weather Station or Wet Bulb Dry Globe Temp Sensor/Dosimeter (Best)