How Industrial Workers Can Drill Down on Safety This Summer with Wearables

Wearable technology is revolutionizing workplace safety with real-time, personalized insights mitigating the increasing risks of heat stress.

The escalating climate crisis continues to take a toll, and industrial workers are at the frontline, grappling with a multi-record-breaking summer of heat waves. Workers in Arizona have faced 25 days in a row above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. June 2023 was the warmest June since 1850. Rising temperatures mark a surge in heat stress, dehydration, and other heat-related illnesses. This intensifies the challenges industrial athletes face, as the physical health and productivity of our labor force hangs in the balance.

Amid these formidable challenges, wearable technologies have emerged as a potential lifesaver. These state-of-the-art devices help capture the highly personalized nature of human health and can provide real-time, actionable physiological insights to save lives. By alerting wearers and their supervisors to potential health threats, they serve as a vanguard for worker safety, revolutionizing industrial workspace dynamics. The role of these silent guardians is becoming increasingly critical as we navigate a future seared by intensifying heat. More than 50 additional high-heat days are expected per year, resulting in 450,000 heat-related injuries annually by 2050.

Working under extreme heat comes with considerable physical and psychological repercussions for industrial workers. Physically, the strain of maintaining an optimal internal temperature while working pushes our bodies to their limits. This strain, under the duress of extreme heat stress, can unravel, leading to health problems that range from mild heat cramps to loss of consciousness and potentially fatal heatstroke. For every 1-degree Celsius rise in temperature, there is a 3% loss in efficiency and 1% increase in injuries.

Beyond physical ailments, the oppressive heat takes a significant psychological toll, inducing fatigue, reducing cognitive functions and impairing alertness and performance. The convergence of physical discomfort and psychological strain makes a potent recipe for workplace accidents, thereby escalating worker safety concerns. Adding to the distress are the long-term health risks such as cardiovascular diseases and kidney disorders that high heat exposure can precipitate.

The gravity of this situation is amplified by widespread underreporting. Multiple studies have highlighted this concern, suggesting a staggering 50-fold difference between official figures and the actual prevalence of heat injuries and heat-related illnesses across industries. This discrepancy underscores the urgent need for proactive, real-time monitoring and preventive measures. It’s also costly; research has shown that medical-related costs increase 42% per 2 degrees Fahrenheit above 91 Fahrenheit.

In response to this pressing need, wearable technology is a viable solution. These advanced devices continually monitor a worker's vital signs such as heart rate, body temperature and sweat fluid, and electrolyte loss that could normally only be found in a sport science lab. Wearables can detect early signs of heat stress and dehydration, enabling immediate intervention before these conditions spiral into serious health risks.

Certain sectors, notably construction, oil and gas, and firefighting, are especially susceptible to heat stress. The nature of these jobs often necessitates laboring under direct sunlight, wearing non-breathable protective clothing and operating in confined spaces or near radiant heat sources. For example, firefighters grapple with dual sources of intense heat: the fires they battle and the excess heat trapped by their protective gear. Confined space workers don non-breathable PPE and respirators and then climb down long ladders into metal hot boxes full of chemical fumes. This double jeopardy significantly magnifies their risk of heat stress.

In these high-risk sectors, wearable technologies have proven their worth. These devices can be customized to cater to the unique needs of each industry, offering real-time temperature monitoring, hydration alerts, and predictive algorithms and alarms. Historically, temperature-monitoring wearables have been used as an alarm when things get bad. But new advanced wearables focused on preventative measures, such as monitoring hydration levels through sweat loss, help workers avoid those situations in the first place. With these capabilities at hand, wearables are being proved in a multitude of industries, providing data-driven, personalized solutions to combat extreme heat.

Current occupational heat stress standards, while necessary, aren't devoid of shortcomings. There are opportunities to establish standards and the number of states working on heat standards is increasing. These standards often lean on generic safety thresholds, neglecting individual variations in heat tolerance, workload strain, and protective gear types. The challenge of creating universally applicable standards across diverse work types and environments compounds the situation, leaving gaps in safety measures.

Wearable technology can bridge these gaps. These devices generate precise, real-time data about an individual's physiological state, allowing for a nuanced understanding of each worker's personalized response to heat stress. Unlike blanket, one-size-fits-all guidelines, wearable technology enables the creation of personalized safety insights. For example, the current National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) heat index is a common tool used to classify environmental heat risks. But for workers wearing heavy PPE and in a confined tank, they can experience significantly higher risk due to their personal microclimate compared to ambient weather guidelines.

Looking forward, wearable technology can play an instrumental role in workplace safety. In the era of smart and connected workplaces, these devices are poised to play a pivotal role in enhancing worker well-being and productivity, while providing an enhanced, personalized and real-time safety toolset to employers. Developers are relentlessly working on newer, more sophisticated wearables that can monitor a broader array of health parameters and provide personalized health tips and warnings. These ongoing refinements promise to make these devices more efficient and accurate in preempting heat-related illnesses. Meanwhile, more and more employers for industrial athletes are rolling out connected worker solutions and supporting infrastructure.

As global temperatures continue rising, the threat of heat stress to industrial workers is set to intensify. But wearable technology offers hope in a time of extreme heat and insufficient regulations. These devices promise to transform safety protocols radically, providing real-time, personalized insights that can significantly mitigate the risk of heat-related injuries. Looking ahead, the widespread adoption of wearables within the industrial sector isn't just a possibility. It's an imperative. These devices represent the future of industrial safety, equipping workers with the tools they need to navigate the challenges of our warming planet safely.

Written by:  Matt Marrapode, Senior Director of Business Development at Epicore Biosystems, for OH&S.