Aug 4, 2022
Libby is very excited to
welcome Dr. Eric Lutz,
Director of the Mining Safety Center of Excellence at the
University of Arizona to the podcast today. Formerly the Mining
Research Director at Spokane, Dr. Lutz has gained a vast amount of
expertise, knowledge and experience in his more than 20 years in
the mining industry. In today’s episode, he shares a story
highlighting the importance of heat safety.
Episode Highlights:
- One summer many years ago, a friend of Eric’s
was working as a field geologist supervising a drill operation in
the intense Texas heat
- She got overheated and started feeling unwell
and faint - a condition called syncope related to heat
strain
- She was able to recover by cooling off in air
conditioning and hydrating
- On her next rotation, she had another heat
stress event, and it was a little more severe than the last
one
- This continued on for years where each
subsequent event of getting overheated happened a little sooner,
and it was a little more severe when it did happen
- Now it's to the point where she has a very high
level of heat susceptibility
- When she gets overheated now, she is basically
sick for 24 hours - feeling miserable, vomiting, feeling very sick,
completely fatigued and wiped out
- Everyone needs to understand that when you get
heat stressed, it is a cascade of events that occurs
physiologically with your body reacting to trying to manage that
overheating; that each time you're subsequently exposed to
excessive heat, it'll be more severe and you'll be more susceptible
to it
- We have to proactively manage our heat
stress and keep ourselves cool when we're working in these very
extreme environments
- From subsequent exposures, your body goes
through that cascade of events from heat cramps all the way through
heat stroke, which is 90%, fatal and very severe
- Through that cascade, you can intervene at any
moment to get your body cooled off
- Eric recommends that, if you're feeling hot,
put your arm under cold water, run cold water over your left wrist,
and, since there's a tremendous amount of blood flow through your
left arm, you'll find that it cools you very rapidly
Toolbox Talk Discussion Questions:
- Work must continue even when it’s hot outside.
How can we check in with team members to ensure that everyone is
safe in the summer?
- Part of keeping yourself safe is knowing your
own body and response to heat. Does anyone have a story about
getting acclimated to heat?
- Does anyone have a story about an experience
with heat stress they’d like to share?
Quotes:
“She was working in the middle
of nowhere outside of Midland, Texas in the middle of summer and
supervising a drill operation there and she got overheated -
started not feeling very well, she started feeling
faint.”
“Then the next rotation, she had
another heat stress event, and it was a little more severe than the
last one. She ended up feeling not only a little faint, but she had
a headache that went with it that was quite extreme. And then that
evening, after work back at the hotel, she was vomiting and felt
extremely fatigued.”
“Each time you're subsequently
exposed to excessive heat, it'll be more severe, and you'll be more
susceptible to it.”
“As we work through our careers,
we have to manage proactively our management of heat
stress.”
“I live in Arizona. So certainly
living in southern Arizona in the middle of summer, it's not
unusual at all to be working in an environment that's basically 120
degrees Fahrenheit all day long when if you have any kind of
physical demand, that increases that risk of heat strain that can
occur.”
“Work on getting yourself cooled
off and try to mitigate your heat risk.”
“It’s so important to remember
that not only do we become more susceptible to heat illness, the
more we're exposed to it, but also that you can really progress
through the different levels of heat illness very
quickly.”
Links:
National Stone, Sand & Gravel
Association website