by KENZEN | Mar 23, 2021 | Announcement, Data Modeling, Heat Injuries, heat stress, In The News, Press Release, Smart PPE, Wearable Tech, Worksite Safety
KENZEN LAUNCHES DATA DASHBOARD THAT ANALYZES SAFETY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF WORKERS IN HOT AND HUMID CONDITIONS
NEW YORK CITY (March 23, 2021) – Kenzen has launched a data and analytics dashboard, the latest component of its smart PPE connected worker solution. The dashboard captures workers’ core body temperature (the greatest predictor of heat stress and illness), productivity, and microclimates caused by clothing under hot and humid working conditions.
Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) managers and company leaders can now have a data-driven overview of work sites, both real time and retrospectively, to evaluate heat risk information by location and job role. The analysis consists of tens of thousands of data points collected per worker per day from the Kenzen wearable which tracks physiological factors including core temperature and heart rate. The Kenzen system uniquely enables companies to identify and address challenges and opportunities related to work in hot and humid conditions. The information allows them to manage risk and improve processes to keep workers safer and more productive.
Last year, Kenzen unveiled the monitoring device and its complimentary mobile app that alerts workers when they are at risk of heat stress and illness and when to stop work, rest, and return to work safely. The hardware and app work together to feed data to the real-time dashboard for supervisors to monitor their teams proactively and intervene when necessary.
Kenzen’s new analytics dashboard allows senior managers, who on average are responsible for 10 teams of 10 people each day, to dig deeper into the data and have a holistic view across worksites and teams. The dashboard provides insight into how various environments affect workers and uses the information to guide management in the implementation of changes to keep workers safer while optimizing productivity. Actionable feedback enables tailoring of work/rest schedules and identification of PPE clothing with the least impact on worker performance.
The complete Kenzen solution integrates the company’s commitment to personal data privacy; only workers can view the details of their personal health information and safety managers and other EHS leaders only see what’s necessary to keep the worker safe.
“The latest tool in the Kenzen connected worker solution comes just in time for a summer that’s expected to be one of the most extreme on record,” said Heidi Lehmann, Kenzen co-founder and chief commercial officer. Lehmann adds that, for every 10-degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature, there is a 393 percent increase in hospitalizations for heat exposure. “Now companies have the power to predict and prevent heat-related injuries and deaths and manage productivity at the same time.”
About Kenzen
Founded in 2016, Kenzen is the premier physiological monitoring platform to keep workforces safe from heat, fatigue, and over exertion on the job while providing data driven insights to maintain productivity. For more information about heat stress and how to integrate the system into a safety plan, visit Kenzen.com.
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by Bitsy Foster | Mar 26, 2020 | Heat Injuries
Did you know that your body temperature normally fluctuates up to 1°C (~1.8°F) in a day? But why?\
THE DAILY CORE TEMPERATURE CYCLE
Your core temperature is lowest around 4-6 AM and highest around 4-7 PM. Biological circadian rhythms are ~25 h in length, and so the time of day these peaks and troughs occur will slightly shift each day.
This is important to remember when working in the heat, because your core temperature will always be lower in the morning than in the afternoon, and so it is important to understand whether your core temperature is increasing as a result of heat stress or just due to typical fluctuations in body temperature throughout the day.
WHAT CAUSES THIS CORE TEMPERATURE FLUCTUATION?
The short answer: melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that has a tight control on your body temperature: when your body increases melatonin at night, this leads to a decrease in your body temperature (by ~0.3°C) and causes you to get sleepy. This is one of the reasons that taking melatonin might help you fall asleep.
However, studies have shown that melatonin does not reduce your body temperature enough to help you stay cooler in the heat.
HOW DOES THIS CORE TEMPERATURE FLUCTUATION AFFECT YOUR ABILITY TO WORK IN THE HEAT?
Although your ability to dissipate heat is just as good in the morning as in the afternoon, the slightly higher core temperature in the afternoon can reduce your productivity because you might achieve a higher core temperature sooner. That means you might need to take more breaks to stay cool in the afternoon vs. the morning work shifts.
One solution is to try to get all of your hard work done in the morning when it’s cooler outside and your body temperature is lower, and to save the smaller, lighter work tasks for the afternoon.
Have more questions? Kenzen is here to help with our Heat Safety Training Program.
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REFERENCES:
1) Racinais, S. “Different effects of heat exposure upon exercise performance in the morning and afternoon.” Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports 20 (2010): 80-89.
2) Cheung, Stephen S. Advanced environmental exercise physiology. Human Kinetics Publishers, 2009.
by Bitsy Foster | Feb 6, 2020 | Heat Injuries
We’ve probably all been there: sweating it out in the heat, wishing we were in a cool lake or pool, and so we reach for that water bottle and pour the water on our head for some relief.
But does this actually cool you off or is this relief just temporary?
The answer: it depends on your conditions.
In a hot-dry environment (low humidity):
- Pouring water over your head can cool you off and lower your core body temperature, but the caveat to this is that you have to be in a place where the water you poured on your body can evaporate off of your skin and get rid of heat (remember, only sweat that evaporates off of your skin actually cools you off).
- A good breeze is also important to help wick the water off of your skin to cool you down.
And as you’ve probably guessed, you’d also need to be wearing minimal clothing— like shorts & a t-shirt— as heavy clothing, like PPE, would just trap the water you poured on your body.
strong>In a hot-wet environment (high humidity):
- If your sweat is already dripping off of you and it’s really humid outside then pouring water over your head might make you feel better, but won’t help you cool down.
- Research has shown that pouring water over your head can make you feel cooler by reducing your skin temperatures and also reduce your perceived exertion (how hard you feel like you’re working) in the heat. However, it won’t improve your performance.
So, what’s the verdict on pouring water over your head?
Unless you’re wearing light clothing and working in a hot-dry environment where the water can evaporate off of your skin, it won’t help to cool you off. That being said, if it makes you feel better to pour cold water over your head and helps you get through the work day, it won’t hurt you, so go for it- just remember to keep an eye on the signs & symptoms of heat illness.
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REFERENCES:
Munoz, C. X., et al. “Effects of oral rehydration and external cooling on physiology, perception, and performance in hot, dry climates.” Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports 22.6 (2012): e115-e124.
Morris, Nathan B., and Ollie Jay. “To drink or to pour: How should athletes use water to cool themselves?.” (2016): 191-194.
by Bitsy Foster | Jan 23, 2020 | Heat Injuries
Calculating your sweat rate is the best way to figure out how much water you need to be drinking when working or exercising in the heat.
You can use our sweat rate calculator (see below) to figure out your average sweat rate, and how much water you should drink back after your exercise bout or work day.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO GET AN ACCURATE SWEAT RATE CALCULATION:
- Pick an activity (ideally during your typical workday) that is 30-60 minutes long, where you are usually sweating. Note that you will need to weigh yourself (nude) before and after the activity, so if this is not possible at work, then go for a run at home or the gym, or do some sort of aerobic (endurance) activity that gets your heart rate up & causes you to sweat (e.g., elliptical, cycling, etc).
- Weigh yourself (nude) before exercise and/or work. Write down this number. Go do your activity – and be sure to keep track of the time (be as precise as possible). Note: During this exercise period, you should not use the restroom or drink any fluids. Immediately after you’re done, take your clothes off & wipe off any dripping sweat from your body.
- Weigh yourself (nude) again. Write down this number. Enter your two body weights & your exercise/work duration in the calculator below to get your sweat rate & how much water you should drink back!
Sweat Rate Calculator
Note that the amount of water to drink back is the amount specific to the activity you did (and that amount of time). If it’s really hot outside, your sweat rate might be even higher, and then you’ll need to drink even more water.
**Remember that you can’t just chug all of that water at once because your body can only absorb it so fast.. as a general rule of thumb, your body can only absorb ~1 cup (8 oz.) of water every 15 minutes, so try to divide up your fluids (over the hour) based on that rule.
For more information, check out our blog on staying hydrated during the workday.
THIS IS A GOOD PLACE TO START, BUT FOR MORE CUSTOMIZED HYDRATION PLANS & RECOMMENDATIONS SPECIFIC TO YOUR SITE, WORK ACTIVITIES, AND CLOTHING, CHECK OUT KENZEN’S HEAT SAFETY PROGRAM– WE’RE HERE TO HELP.
by Bitsy Foster | Jan 16, 2020 | Heat Injuries
Most heat-related deaths occur in the first few days on the job. Heat acclimatization can help prevent this.
A study of OSHA citations issued between 2012 and 2013 revealed 20 cases of heat-related illness or death of workers [Arbury et al. 2014]. In most of these cases, employers had no program to prevent heat illness, or programs were deficient; and acclimatization was the program element most commonly missing and most clearly associated with worker death.
How Do You Acclimatize to the Heat?
You might have already heard about heat acclimatization, but what is it and why does it actually make your job easier?
Heat acclimatization is a process where your body undergoes physiological changes that allow it better handle the heat— which means that your performance in the heat will improve and you are less likely to suffer from heat-related problems (e.g., heat cramps).
For heat acclimatization to occur, you typically have to increase your core body temperature by 1°C (~1.8°F) for at least 1 hour, repeatedly each day, for 5-14 days in a row (each person will take a different amount of time to acclimatize to the heat).
Physiological Changes that Occur with Heat Acclimatization
After your body is acclimatized to the heat, you will notice lots of different changes.
- Sweating: You will start to sweat sooner (at a lower core body temperature) and you will sweat more. This is important because it allows your body to cool off (through evaporative heat loss), which means that your body temperature will stay lower for the same work rate. (See a refresher on heat loss through sweating here). You may also notice that your sweat becomes less salty after you’ve been working in the heat for a while; this is because your body becomes more efficient at reabsorbing the salt in your sweat, which helps you stay better hydrated in the heat.
- Heart rate: Your heart rate at rest and during work (or exercise) will be lower after heat acclimatization. This is because you get an increase in plasma volume (the water in your blood) with heat acclimatization, which means that with each heart beat, you can now pump more blood (to get more oxygen to the working muscles). As a result, your heart rate will be lower for the same work rate. This means that you can work for longer in the heat without getting tired. (See a refresher here on heart rate changes with heat stress).
- Core and skin temperatures: Due to the improvements in your sweating (and improved ability to get rid of heat), your core and skin temperatures will be lower at rest and during work or exercise (for the same work rate). This, combined with a lower heart rate, means that after heat acclimatization, you can work harder for longer periods of time before needing to take a break because your body is staying cooler.
Important Tips During Heat Acclimatization:
Need help figuring all of this out for your workers & work-site? Kenzen can help with our site-specific evaluations, heat safety training, and individualized. recommendations
HEAT ACCLIMATIZATION IS THE BEST “PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT” OUT THERE (FOR WORK IN THE HEAT) BECAUSE IT IMPROVES YOUR PERFORMANCE AND KEEPS YOU SAFER— SO MAKE SURE THAT YOU (OR YOUR WORKERS) ARE HEAT ACCLIMATIZED!
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References:
Pryor, J. Luke, Christopher T. Minson, and Michael S. Ferrara. “Heat acclimation.” Sport and Physical Activity in the Heat. Springer, Cham, 2018. 33-58.
Coco, Aitor, Brenda Jacklitsch, Jon Williams, Jung-Hyun Kim, Kristin Musolin, and Nina Turner. “Criteria for a recommended standard: occupational exposure to heat and hot environments.” control Ccfd, editor (2016).
