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Heat Illness Prevention

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helensym3
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29 views1 page

Heat Illness Prevention

Uploaded by

helensym3
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Heat Illness Prevention

Heat illness is a serious medical condition resulting from the body’s inability to cope with a
particular heat load and can include heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat syncope (fainting),
and heat stroke.

Personal risk factors are age, weight, physical fitness, metabolism, acclimation (body’s
adaption to the heat, 4-14 days), prescription drugs, water, alcohol and caffeine consumption,
and other conditions that affect the body’s water retention or physiological responses to heat.

Environmental risk factors are air temperature, relative humidity, radiant heat from the sun
and other sources, conductive heat sources such as the ground, air movement, workload
severity and duration, protective clothing, and personal protective equipment (PPE).

Heat cramps - Caused by performing hard physical activity in a hot environment. Symptoms
include painful spasms of the muscles caused by the body’s loss of salt and by lack of water
replenishment. Treatment: Have the person rest in a cool area, give slightly salted cool water,
and stretch any cramped muscle.

Heat Syncope (fainting) - Happens when a person who is not acclimated to hot environment.
Blood vessels in their skin and in the lower part of the body dilate which may cause blood to
pool there rather than return to the heart to be pumped to the brain causing dizziness or
fainting. Treatment: If the person is unresponsive, check their breathing. A person with heat
syncope will usually recover quickly. Have the person rest and lie down in a cool area. Wet the
skin with a cool, damp cloth or a spray bottle. If the person is not nauseated and is fully alert
and able to swallow, give lightly salted cool water.

Heat Exhaustion - Results from loss of fluid through sweating and not drinking enough fluids.
Symptoms include cool, moist, pale, flushed or red skin, heavy sweating, headache, nausea, or
vomiting, dizziness, giddiness and extreme weakness or fatigue. The skin is clammy and moist
while body temperature will be near normal or slightly elevated. Treatment: Move the person to
a cool place, remove excess clothing, spray or douse water on the person’s skin and vigorously
fan, if the person is able to swallow, give commercial sports drink, fruit juice, salted water, or
cool water, call 911 if improvement does not occur within 30 minutes.

Heat Stroke - This occurs when the body’s system of temperature regulation fails and the body
temperature rises to critical levels. This is a MEDICAL EMERGENCY!!! Signs and symptoms
are sweating stops, confusion, irrational behavior, loss of consciousness, convulsions, hot/dry
skin, and high temperature. This may lead to death. Treatment: Move the person to a cool
shaded area, remove clothing down to the person’s underwear, cool the person quickly by any
means possible, whole-body cold-water immersion: place the person in cold water up to the
neck, DO NOT leave the person alone, evaporating cooling (spray or douse cold water on the
skin and vigorously fan), place ice packs against the person’s armpits, groin, and neck, call 911
as soon as possible.

Always consider the following when working in heat: A. Drink water often. Drink water
even if you aren’t thirsty - every 15 minutes. B. Rest in the shade. Shade can be under a tree,
umbrella, canopy, or inside a vehicle with air conditioning. C. Report heat symptoms early.
Watch out for each other. D. Know what to do in an emergency. Know where the nearest
hospital is, supervisor contact, first aid treatment.

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