Page 46 - Occupational Health & Safety, March 2019

SUMMER HAZARDS/HEAT STRESS
When Work Brings the Heat:
Your Guide to Heat Stress Risks and Solutions
You can’t change the weather, but you can change your approach to working in the heat.
BY ALSIE NELSON
Weather patterns are changing. The plan- et’s getting warmer. And, in fact, all but three of the hottest years on record have occurred since 2000. On average, excessive heat causes 650 deaths in the United States every year; 39 of those took place on the job in 2016— double the number that occurred only two years prior.
Construction workers in particular take the brunt of the burn, which makes sense when you think about their exposure to unpredictable outdoor temperatures. Services-providing industries, such as trade, transpor- tation, warehousing, and utilities, account for a large percentage of the remaining occupational fatalities.
Know the Risk
Heat stress occurs when the body’s means of control-
ling its internal temperature starts to fail. Once the body’s temperature reaches 99.7° F (37.6° C), heat stress has begun to affect the body. At 104° F (40° C), it becomes susceptible to severe damage. As little as 30 minutes of 104° temps can cause cellular damage to the brain or even death.
Two factors contribute to how heat stress affects the body: personal and environmental. Some work- ers are at greater risk before they ever step foot in the heat due to personal factors: being older or over- weight, having heart disease or high blood pressure, or taking medications that act as diuretics or do not react well to extreme heat. The second contributing factor is environmental amd accounts for anything that impacts the body externally: High temperatures; direct sunlight; humidity; limited air movement; hot
40 Occupational Health & Safety | MARCH 2019
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