Al
Welcome everybody to Radio Free Tenacity, the voice of worker safety. Here today to talk about heat stress and specifically what to do when a crew member falls victim to the heat. For help answering that question, we brought in our resident heat stress expert, Lexi Engelbart. Lexi, we talk a lot about, you know, what can be done to prevent heat related illness, but sometimes even our best efforts aren't enough, right? And I'm wondering if you could maybe start by telling us what to look for. Like what are the signs that a teammate has really gotten in trouble with the heat?
Lexi
Yeah, definitely. So there's going to be a handful of different heat illnesses that all present signs and symptoms in different ways.
Al
Okay.
Lexi
So the body has a built-in way of cooling itself down, that's going to be sweating. So a great sign to look for is if somebody is not sweating. Basically that can present itself by, you know, heat rash. So you get itchy, a little blister type of action. So yeah, it's like if it's hot out and somebody stops sweating, that's a really great sign to look for.
Al
Okay.
Lexi
You know, what that usually means is that you're not having enough electrolytes. Maybe dehydration is setting in. That's all a really early onset sign. So that's really where we can start taking action. Another really obvious precursor would be, you know, heat cramps. So you're going to start to feel your muscles tense up, maybe in your legs upper body again, dehydration, electrolyte loss. Those are all going to work their way into heat exhaustion and heat stroke. So start taking action when those signs and symptoms start showing themselves.
Al
Okay, so what sort of actions do you recommend in those cases?
Lexi
Yeah. So, you know, we definitely want to try to get the person into a cool environment if that's possible. If you have climate control, AC, fans. Get that person cooled down. You can apply cooling PPE as well. So cooling towels, you know, phase change packs to any of those pulse points. That's going to help bring down that core body temperature as quickly as possible.
Al
Okay. Awesome. Anything else we should know there in terms of what to look for?
Lexi
So with heat exhaustion and heat stroke, that's where we're going to get into a medical emergency territory. So we need to make sure we're acting fast, monitoring that person, and you know, what's your emergency plan that you have in place. So again, common signs would be dizziness, feeling faint or even confusion. Those are where we're inching into that heat exhaustion, heat stroke, medical emergency territory.
Al
Okay. All right. Well and yeah, once you start getting into that area, yeah things have gotten really, really serious. Good news is, from what I've read and what I've heard, the research says, if you act quickly, you know, you can kind of get yourself out of a pickle there. Right?
Lexi
Exactly. Yeah. You want to respond, as quickly as possible. You want to call the paramedics first. While you're waiting for paramedics to come, cooling down that person as quickly as possible. A lot of times we're on a remote job site or there's not climate control. So there's a couple really easy techniques that can be used in a pinch if you can't cool somebody down with AC or something like that.
Al
All right. Cool. Why don't you share with the audience!
Lexi
Absolutely! So like I said, the first step would definitely be calling 911. Get paramedics on the way. Make sure you've got an emergency medical plan in place. Number two, you know, I said talking about remote job sites. Maybe you've got, you know, a tent, or something like that. Our SHAX® 6000 is a great model to help provide shade. Again, taking a rest break. You want to get that person out of the sun and cooling down. So again, medical emergency, somebody goes down, what do you do to try to cool them off as quickly as possible while paramedics are on the way? A really great solution, is called the T.A.C.O. Method. So Tarp Assisted Cooling Oscillation.
Al
Got it.
Lexi
So T.A.C.O., delicious to eat and really helpful in an emergency situation too. So basically, what you'll do is take a tarp, in our case, our SHAX® sidewalls work really perfect for this application. So you can take a SHAX® sidewall down, roll the person into the tarp. You'll want to get a bucket or cooler full of ice water. Pour that all over the person. And really what we're trying to do, you'll pick up the corners of the tarp. You'll try to oscillate that water, that ice...
Al
Okay.
Lexi
Try to cool that person down from a total body perspective. Very similar to how athletes use, ice baths or, you know, something along those lines. Just to try to cool that body down as quickly as possible.
Al
Okay, okay. Well, that's actually really helpful and helpful to know that the SHAX® sidewall, can act as that tarp in an emergency situation. And it definitely bears repeating that, you know, the first step here is dialing 911. Get emergency on the way. Right?
Lexi
Absolutely. They're the professionals. We re just trying to cool this person down while they're on the way.
Al
Got it, got it. Well Lexi thank you so much for being here and talking Heat Stress Safety. For those out there watching or listening, if you do want to go and investigate further on heat related illnesses and solutions, head over to ergodyne.com/heat-stress and you'll find a whole treasure trove of information there. Once again, thank you very much for watching or listening. Stay safe out there people.