Heat stress safety program

If heat stress is a hazard at your workplace, consult with a safety and health professional, and review the full recommendations provided in the NIOSH Criteria for a Recommended Standard: Occupational Exposure to Heat and Hot Environments pdf icon. Employers should reduce workplace heat stress by implementing engineering and work practice controls.

Train workers before hot outdoor work begins. Tailor training to cover worksite-specific conditions. Employers should provide a heat stress training program for all workers and supervisors about the following:. Acclimatization is the result of beneficial physiological adaptations e. Employers should ensure that workers are acclimatized before they work in a hot environment. Employers should ensure and encourage workers to take appropriate rest breaks to cool down and hydrate.

Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Heat Stress - Recommendations. Minus Related Pages. If heat stress is a hazard at your workplace, consult with a safety and health professional, and review the full recommendations provided in the NIOSH Criteria for a Recommended Standard: Occupational Exposure to Heat and Hot Environments pdf icon Control of Heat Stress Employers should reduce workplace heat stress by implementing engineering and work practice controls.

Engineering controls might include those that: Increase air velocity. Use reflective or heat-absorbing shielding or barriers. Reduce steam leaks, wet floors, or humidity.

Reduce the metabolic demands of the job. Use special tools i. Increase the number of workers per task. Elderly Fire Safety. Homeschool Fire Safety. By Melissa Mayntz. Safety Slogans. By Cheryl Cirelli.

School Winter Safety. Safety in the Science Classroom. Electrical Safety Tips at Home. Internet Safety Keystroke Logger. Need for Campus Security. By Jennifer Chait. Airplane Virus Safety. Personal Home Computer Security System. This is generally only effective as long as the air temperature is less than the worker's skin temperature usually less than 95 degrees F dry bulb. Changes in air speed can help workers stay cooler by increasing both the convective heat exchange the exchange between the skin surface and the surrounding air and the rate of evaporation.

This does not actually cool the air so moving air must impact the worker directly to be effective. Heat conduction blocking methods include insulating the hot surface that generates the heat and changing the surface itself.

Simple devices such as shields, can be used to reduce radiant heat, i. Polished surfaces make the best barriers, although special glass or metal mesh surfaces can be used if visibility is a problem With some sources of radiation, such as heating pipes, it is possible to use both insulation and surface modifications to achieve a substantial reduction in radiant heat.

Acclimatize workers by exposing them to work in a hot environment for progressively longer periods. Ample supplies of liquids should be placed close to the work area. Although some commercial replacement drinks contain salt, this is not necessary for acclimatized individuals because most people add enough salt to their summer diets. Reduce the physical demands by reducing physical exertion such as excessive lifting, climbing, or digging with heavy objects.

Spread the work over more individuals, use relief workers or assign extra workers. Provide external pacing to minimize overexertion. Provide recovery areas such as air-conditioned enclosures and rooms and provide intermittent rest periods with water breaks.

Reschedule hot jobs for the cooler part of the day, and routine maintenance and repair work in hot areas should be scheduled for the cooler seasons of the year. Personal monitoring can be done by checking the heart rate, recovery heart rate, oral temperature, or extent of body water loss.

To check the heart rate, count pulse for 30 seconds at the beginning of the rest period. If the heart rate exceeds beats per minute, shorten the next work period by one third and maintain the same rest period. The recovery heart rate can be checked by comparing the pulse rate taken at 30 seconds P1 with the pulse rate taken at 2. The two pulse rates can be interpreted using the following criteria. Check oral temperature with a clinical thermometer after work but before the employee drinks water.

If the oral temperature taken under the tongue exceeds Measure body water loss by weighing the worker on a scale at the beginning and end of each work day. The worker's weight loss should not exceed 1. If a weight loss exceeding this amount is observed, fluid intake should increase. Develop a heat stress training program, and incorporate into health and safety plans at least the following components:. Reflective clothing , which can vary from aprons and jackets to suits that completely enclose the worker from neck to feet, can reduce the radiant heat reaching the worker.

However, since most reflective clothing does not allow air exchange through the garment, the reduction of radiant heat must more than offset the corresponding loss in evaporative cooling. For this reason, reflective clothing should be worn as loosely as possible. In situations where radiant heat is high, auxiliary cooling systems can be used under the reflective clothing. Auxiliary body cooling ice vests , though heavy, may accommodate as many as 72 ice packets, which are usually filled with water.

Carbon dioxide dry ice can also be used as a coolant. The cooling offered by ice packets lasts only 2 to 4 hours at moderate to heavy heat loads, and frequent replacement is necessary. However, ice vests do not tether the worker and thus permit maximum mobility. Cooling with ice is also relatively inexpensive. Wetted clothing such as terry cloth coveralls or two-piece, whole-body cotton suits are another simple and inexpensive personal cooling technique. It is effective when reflective or other impermeable protective clothing is worn.

This approach to auxiliary cooling can be quite effective under conditions of high temperature, good air flow, and low humidity. Water-cooled garments range from a hood, which cools only the head, to vests and "long johns," which offer partial or complete body cooling.

Use of this equipment requires a battery-driven circulating pump, liquid-ice coolant, and a container. Although this system has the advantage of allowing wearer mobility, the weight of the components limits the amount of ice that can be carried and thus reduces the effective use time.