Heat and Cold Stress
Temperature extremes pose a hazard of concern to the health, safety, and comfort of personnel involved in hazardous waste site activities. Site health and safety personnel must consider the two most common dangers, heat stress and cold exposure, when making decisions regarding PPE selection and work mission duration, when establishing standard operating procedures for site activities, and when conducting medical monitoring.
Factors Causing Heat Stress
Wearing PPE puts a hazardous waste worker at considerable risk of developing heat stress. This can result in health effects ranging from transient heat fatigue to serious illness or death.
Heat stress is caused by several interacting factors, including environmental conditions, clothing, workload, and the individual characteristics of the worker. Because heat stress is probably one of the most common (and potentially serious) illnesses at hazardous waste sites, regular monitoring and other preventive precautions are vital.
Individuals vary in their susceptibility to heat stress. Factors which may predispose someone to heat stress include:
- lack of physical fitness
- lack of acclimatization
- age
- dehydration
- obesity
- alcohol and drug use
- infection
- sunburn
- diarrhea
- chronic disease
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
6-1. What factor may predispose someone to heat stress?
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