Heat Stroke
Understanding heat stress starts with understanding how your body copes with heat. Our bodies attempt to maintain a constant internal temperature - 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit on average. But sometimes, due to the air temperature or the physical activities we’re engaged in, our internal body temperature can exceed 98.6. When this happens, the body tries to bring its temperature back down by getting rid of excess heat. This is done in two ways.
The first is to vary the rate and amount of blood circulating at the skin surface. Your heart begins to pump more blood and the capillaries which run through the upper layers of your skin expand and fill with blood. As the blood circulates closer to the surface of the skin, excess heat is released.
But sometimes this isn’t enough. When it isn’t, your body senses it’s still overheating and signals your sweat glands to release sweat onto the skin surface. Evaporation of sweat cools the skin and eliminates excess heat from the body.
When these two mechanisms work well, your core body temperature drops or stabilizes to a safe level.
Even when your body’s internal cooling mechanism is working right, the effects of coping with heat can put you at risk of injury.
With so much blood going to the skin surface, less and less goes to your brain. This reduces your alertness and mental capacity. You’ll find yourself less able to retain and recall information.
More blood at the skin surface also means less blood for your active muscles and other internal organs. This causes you to feel you’re losing your strength or growing fatigued much sooner than you normally would.
In addition, sweat can also cause problems. Slipperiness of sweaty palms may cause you to drop items. Your safety goggles might also fog up, affecting your vision.
All of this can add up to safety hazards. In fact, studies have shown that more accidents tend to occur in hot environments. Why? As we’ve seen, working in a hot environment lowers your mental alertness and physical performance. In addition, a higher body temperature and the physical discomfort of battling the heat also tend to make us irritable and angry and cause us to overlook safety procedures or divert our attention from hazardous tasks.
