Heat Related Illness
Managing the Risk of Heat Related Illness
Heat-related illnesses can occur when the work environment, task or individual’s health prevents the body’s cooling mechanisms from working properly.
If heat is a hazard in the workplace, it should be managed following the standard risk management approach:
- Identify the hazard
- Assess the risks
- Control the risks
- Review control measures.
Workers must be consulted at each step of the process.
During the planning phase of any 番茄社区 activity, the activity Supervisor is required to assess all potential risks connected to the activity, including the risk of heat-related illnesses.
Common Heat Related 番茄社区 activities include:
- Field trips
- Outdoor sports and physical exercises classes
- Outdoor laboratories, events, workshops, campus tours
- Working in non- air-conditioned plant rooms, ceiling spaces, sheds and workshops
- Student placements involving outdoor work
- Construction, maintenance and grounds work
Key determinants of heat-related illness risks include: | Individual factors that should also be considered include: |
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Previous experience of discomfort or signs of heat-related illnesses by personnel completing the activity; | Unacclimatised staff, students and Affiliates – e.g. recent arrival from a different climate, changes to type physical nature of work activities e.g. transitioning from office work to an outdoor project / research work, or individuals returning to work after a period of absence; |
Working outdoors in known heat risk conditions including high temperature, elevated humidity, direct sunlight where the participants are engaging in physically demanding tasks, wearing heavy or non-breathable clothing, or there is a lack of access to shade and rest areas; | Poor general health; |
Working indoors where there is insufficient airflow, high radiant heat sources or restricted/confined spaces, or; | Body weight (being overweight or obese can make it more difficult to cope with heat); |
During Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) heat warning periods. | Age (particularly for people about 45 years or older); |
A low level of fitness will make people more susceptible to feeling the extremes of heat; | |
Certain prescription and illicit drug use; | |
Medical conditions – people with conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, pregnancy, respiratory disease and diabetes may need to take special precautions. People with some types of skin diseases and rashes may be more susceptible to heat. |
When assessing the heat risk the activity Supervisor, in consultation with their team, shall consider the following:
- Are ambient conditions hot, with high humidity?
- How often can the team take breaks somewhere cool?
- Is there air movement or breeze?
- Is the work intense or long (high physical exertion)?
- Consult directly with the team to determine physical fitness and ability to acclimatise.
- Do team members wear hot clothing (including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE))?
- Are the team members qualified, trained and experienced?
- Do team members have medical conditions or take medication which affects heat regulation (if disclosed)?
- Is there cool drinking water or electrolytes on hand?
- Do team members have a good understanding of heat risks and management of these risks?
- Heat-related illness emergency response processes specific to the location of the activity (e.g. on campus emergency response will include 番茄社区 security, field work response may require a trained first aider to be part of the team and suitable equipment to quickly lower core body temperature).
Tools to assist in assessing the risks:
Heat stress tools can be useful. These tools can provide an indication of the level of risk, suggesting that further control is required. They are not an indication of whether work should proceed or not.
A great resource, developed by the leading Sports Medicine Organisation in the world, discusses assessing heat related illness risk for various physical activities and cooling strategies amongst other topics.
Online calculator to provide guidance on heat stress.
Activity Supervisors, in conjunction with their team, shall consider reasonably practicable controls to eliminate or minimise the risks associated with working in the heat. Any combination of the controls below can be used to manage the risk. A single ‘stop work’ temperature cannot account for all the factors that make working in heat hazardous.
Hierarchy of Control | Control |
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Elimination | Can the risk be completely removed? E.g., cancelling the work task, waiting for the hot conditions to pass, automating the process. |
Engineering/Substitution/Isolation |
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Administrative |
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PPE (clothing) |
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Individual Controls
Hydration | Medical Conditions | Acclimatisation |
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The team should continually review the controls implemented to determine if:
- They are effective in reducing the heat risk;
- They have introduced new hazards that were not captured during the initial risk assessment; and
- They are easy to implement and practical for the team.
Other Important Facts
If a worker thinks their workplace is too hot, report using RiskWare.
If a worker is concerned that they are working in an unsafe hot environment, they should alert their immediate supervisor to the problem and discuss some of the possible ways of reducing the impact on themselves and their co-workers.
Australia is well known for its temperature extremes, with scorching hot summers. Working in hot and/or humid environments can be uncomfortable, but more importantly lead to a heat-related illness, which can be fatal.
Fact Sheet - Heat Related Illness
Watch SafeWork South Australia's Film on
Heat Stress factors combine to create a total heat load on the body. Heat sources can come from:
- Humidity
- Temperature
- PPE/Clothing
- Metabolic Heart
- Radiant Heat
- Air Movement
Supervisors and workers should assess these factors and work to eliminate these risks or use other safety controls such as substitution, isolation, engineering or administrative actions to minimise the hazards. Refer to WHS-PRO-002 WHS Risk Management Procedure (Section 3) for more information and guidance on using these controls.
Key controls:
- Schedule more physically demanding tasks for the cooler parts of the day during November to February
- Use equipment or plant to reduce physical demands (e.g. ride on mower instead of push mower)
- Install temporary shade
- Increase air movement using fan
- Modify reflective surfaces
- Increase work break frequency, job rotation of tasks and slow down the pace of work if possible
- Wear loose fitting, lightweight clothes or self-cooling garments
- Keep an eye on new coworkers, who are not fully acclimatised to our extremes of temperatures
- Take breaks during the day in cool, shaded areas or air-conditioned room to bring your core temperature down
- Try drinking cold fluids or ice slushies before physical activity. Note that cold water and ice slushy ingestion during physical activity is actually less effective for cooling!
- Water dousing – wetting your skin with cool water using a sponge or a spray bottle helps to increase evaporation
- Placing an ice pack or damp towel filled with crushed ice around your neck
- Wrapping in a tarp filled with ice slurry—ice water cooling (immersion and ice tarp ‘taco’) cools the core by 0.2°C per minute, which is twice as fast as enhancing evaporative cooling by covering the body in soaked towels. Great option for field work.
TACO method - Reference:
You - Self Monitor early warning signs | Coworker - What to look for when monitoring others |
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Refer to First Aid for the type of action depending on the symptoms.
Suspected heat stroke requires immediate vigorous cooling to avoid neurological damage.
Ice-water immersion is the most effective means of cooling, working twice as fast as evaporative cooling using sprayed water and fans.
Symptoms | First Aid | Urgency | |
Heat rash |
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Apply a cold compress. | Seek medical advice if symptoms don’t improve |
Dehydration |
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| Seek medical advice if symptoms don’t improve or are severe. |
Heat Cramps |
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| Seek medical advice if symptoms don’t improve |
Fainting |
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| Seek medical advice |
Heat Stroke |
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While waiting for the ambulance:
| Call an ambulance immediately |