Workers in many fields – construction, landscaping, oil and gas extraction, emergency response, firefighters among others – toil in high heat stress conditions. These tasks can lead to rapid increases in body temperature that raise the risk of heat-related illnesses.
Mitigating work-related heat illnesses has traditionally relied on monitoring external environmental heat stress, such as wet-bulb temperature, rather than focusing on physiological strain responses – heart rate and skin and core temperatures. But it’s challenging to protect workers on an individual basis from heat stress illnesses due to individual factors – age, sex, chronic disease, medication use, fitness, acclimation hydration status, shift duration, illness, among others.