Handbook of Occupational Safety and Health, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 10HEAT STRESS

ANNE M. VENETTA RICHARD

Lucent Technologies, 1600 Osgood St., 21‐2L28, North Andover, MA, 01845

and

RALPH COLLIPI JR.

AT&T, 40 Elwood Rd., Londonderry, NH, 03053

10.1 SIGNIFICANCE OF HEAT STRESS IN INDUSTRY

As industry has developed, through the Industrial Revolution to our present highly technological society, on‐the‐job potential for injury and illness from acute exposure to heat has increased far beyond that known earlier to home‐centered craftsmen. Among the more dangerous original industrial vocations were those using molten materials, such as glass and metals. In these first “hot industries,” the ever‐present danger of bums, explosions, and spills of molten material was well known and accepted, as were potential illness and death from very hard physical work in excessively hot environments (Clayton and Clayton 1991).

The traditional hot work industries (i.e. foundries, smelting, firefighting, military, mining, construction, utilities, glass working, tire and rubber, and textile industry workers) are being augmented by industries at even greater risk. Hazardous chemical handlers, lead and asbestos abatement workers, emergency responders, nuclear and radiation containment specialists, and laboratory and hospital personnel who must wear nonpermeable personal protective equipment along with warm or hot ambient conditions are new sources that need special attention to protect them from potential heat stress (Barrett 1991). Knowledge of the process involved ...