OCCUPATIONAL HEAT STRESS RESEARCH
Indicators to Assess Physiological Heat Strain – Part 3: Multi-Country Field Evaluation and Consensus Recommendations
Workers who experience heat stress on the job are at greater risk for heat-related injuries, illnesses, and productivity losses. This document was created to present effective heat safety recommendations to protect workers from the dangers of heat. A meeting of 51 experts created 40 heat safety recommendations within eight heat safety topics: heat hygiene, hydration, heat acclimatization, environmental monitoring, physiological monitoring, body cooling, textiles and personal protective gear, and emergency action plan implementation. These recommendations will assist safety managers and employers in implementing heat safety recommendations that can be implemented at their worksites and can protect their workers.
Heat Safety in the Workplace: Modified Delphi Consensus to Establish Strategies and Resources to Protect the US Workers
Workers who experience heat stress on the job are at greater risk for heat-related injuries, illnesses, and productivity losses. This document was created to present effective heat safety recommendations to protect workers from the dangers of heat. A meeting of 51 experts created 40 heat safety recommendations within eight heat safety topics: heat hygiene, hydration, heat acclimatization, environmental monitoring, physiological monitoring, body cooling, textiles and personal protective gear, and emergency action plan implementation. These recommendations will assist safety managers and employers implement heat safety recommendations that can be implemented at their worksite and can protect their workers.
A Study of Heat Stress Exposures and Interventions for Mine Rescue Workers
Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in cooperation with mine operators, conducted a study of heat stress exposures among mine rescue workers in underground mines. Mine rescue workers face extreme heat loads as they enter hot and poorly ventilated environments, particularly when they are wearing breathing apparatuses. The burden of wearing a closed-circuit breathing apparatus (CCBA), the inability to drink fluids for extended periods of time, and the potential for ventilation disruptions and fires combine to increase the risk of heat illness during a response to an emergency. In this research, ambient environmental conditions and heat strain indicators were measured using conventional ventilation monitoring tools during mine rescue training exercises.
Heat Stress Exposure of Construction Workers
A significant stressor for construction workers is the potential exposure heat stress related illnesses. Workers in southwest Florida are especially susceptible to incidents of heat stress due to climatic conditions that include high temperatures combined with high relative humidity. Working in hot conditions induces a physiological strain on workers and extreme variations from the internal body temperature interferes with body functions and normal homeostasis. Workers who are exposed to extreme heat or who work in hot conditions can be exposed to heat stress which can result in heat stroke, heat exhaustion. heat cramps, or heat rashes. There are number of studies regarding heat related illnesses in the construction industry; however, there are limited case studies on the conditions of heat exposure experienced by construction workers.
Impact of occupational heat stress on worker productivity and economic cost
Heat stress is a growing concern in the occupational setting as it endangers worker health, safety, and productivity. Heat‐related reductions in physical work capacity and missed workdays directly and indirectly cause productivity losses and may substantially affect the economic wellbeing of the organization. This review high- lights the physiological, physical, psychological, and financial harms of heat stress on worker productivity and proposes strategies to quantify heat‐related productivity losses. Heat stress produces a vicious‐cycle feedback loop that result in adverse outcomes on worker health, safety, and productivity. We propose a theoretical model for implementing an occupational heat safety plan that disrupts this loop, preventing heat‐related productivity losses while improving worker health and safety.
Occupational heat stress assessment and protective strategies in the context of climate change
Global warming will unquestionably increase the impact of heat on individuals who work in already hot workplaces in hot climate areas. The increasing prevalence of this environmental health risk requires the improvement of assessment methods linked to meteorological data. Such new methods will help to reveal the size of the problem and design appropriate interventions at the individual, workplace, and societal levels. The evaluation of occupational heat stress requires the measurement of four thermal climate factors (air temperature, humidity, air velocity, and heat radiation); available weather station data may serve this purpose. However, the use of meteorological data for occupational heat stress assessment is limited because weather stations do not traditionally and directly measure some important climate factors, e.g. solar radiation.
Working on a WARMER planet: The impact of heat stress on labour productivity and decent work
The phenomenon of heat stress refers to heat received in excess of that which the body can tolerate without physiological impairment. Heat stress affects, above all, outdoor workers such as those engaged in agriculture and on construction sites. It is a serious problem for a large proportion of the world’s 1 billion agricultural workers and 66 million textile workers (many of whom have to work inside factories and workshops without air conditioning), and for workers employed, inter alia, in refuse collection, emergency repair work, transport, tourism and sports.