From the course: Occupational Safety and Health: Working in the Heat

Water, rest, and shade

- Don't forget that basic heat illness prevention mantra of water, rest and shade. I spent some time as the director of what's called an OSHA Training Institute Education Center. And I got to work a little bit with Dr. David Michaels, who's the longest serving director of OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration here in the United States. He tells a story of intervening during a disaster cleanup that was taking place in a very hot and very humid area of the U.S., where there were a lot of volunteer workers, maybe with limited training, wearing heavy protective gear and working outside during the hottest parts of the year. Using the basic steps of providing water, rest and shade and implementing many of the engineering and work practice controls that I've discussed in this course, Dr. Michaels reports that they didn't have a single incident of heat-related injuries at this site. Extreme weather can't be ignored but we can take steps to stay safe in the heat and humidity. If you know you'll be working or training or competing in the heat, begin to hydrate the night before. When you drink water, your body can only absorb so much of it and the rest just sits in your stomach until it's expelled. So drinking a bunch of water right before you go out into the heat is really just going to result in more frequent trips to the restroom. Start hydrating early and let your body absorb that fluid into its circulatory system where it can help carry heat away from the core. If you want to read more information about heat stress, like that 192 page research document that I mentioned earlier, the link is on your screen, along with links to the Heat app for smartphones that I discussed earlier. If you have questions about working or training in the heat, make sure to use the Q&A feature here on LinkedIn Learning. Just click on the Q&A tab on the course page and enter your question. You can get answers and start discussions with other people watching this course and I get notified when questions are posted here so that I can check in and provide responses as well. If you want to keep up with my posts, articles and other activities, make sure to visit my LinkedIn profile and click on the follow button to get connected. Thank you for watching my course. Don't forget, we have some additional safety and health courses here in the online library, so I do hope to see you again as you look to increase your knowledge.

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