Ludwig Ben Roald Castaeda Tenjo (62131116)

English V
Faculty of Engineering.
Industrial Engineering.
BUSINESS OF SAFETY: MANAGING OCCUPATIONAL AND
INDUSTRIAL RISKS.
8. HAZARDS OF TEMPERATURE EXTREMES
The part of providing a safe and healthy workplace is appropriately
controlling the temperature, humidity, and air distribution in work
areas. Heat stress, cold stress and burns should be major concern of
employees and employers.
8.1

Effects of high temperatures

Continue exposure to high temperature and humidity or to hot sun is

a common cause of the following forms of heat-induced illnesses:

Head cramps.
Head exhaustion.
Heat stroke.

The same degree of exposure may produce different effects,

depending on the susceptibility of the person exposed. Heat
exhaustion is a condition marked by weakness, nausea, dizziness,
and profuse sweating, usually precipitated by physical exertion in a
hot environment.
8.2

Heat stress and performance

Heat stress is the net heat load to which a worker may be exposed
from the combined contributions of metabolic cost work,
environmental factors and clothing requirements.
High humidity may cause psychological and physiological stresses in
personnel, especially at high temperatures. High relative humidity
means there will be little or no evaporation because a high
percentage of moisture is already present.
All those involved in work in high temperatures should be aware of
the physiological changes which take place and the symptoms that
occur on continued and uncontrolled exposure to excessive heat
when the bodys thermoregulatory mechanisms symptoms are
ignored, serious illness may occur with alarming rapidity.

8.3

Effects of cold

There are two main types of climate in which cold injures may occur.
In a cold dry climate, snow and ice are usually present, and the
temperature seldom rises above 0C. Toes, fingers, ears, and the nose
are the most common sites for cold injury as they loss heat more
rapidly due to their higher surface area-volume ratio and the
peripheral vasoconstriction.
8.4

Protection against temperature extremes

Protection from human exposure to thermal extreme which can result

in personal harm or impaired performance can be provided at the
thermal source, on the pathway to the person in danger and for the
person.
Air condition is the most common measure. The environment along
the pathway between the person and the source is artificially heated
or cooled and/or air is circulated. For the person in danger, many
protective interventions are possible:

Conduct medical screening to select workers based on health

and physical fitness.
Provide acclimatization by guarded work and exposure to
temperature extremes.
Provide or ensure adequate.
Monitor workers during sustained exposure to temperature
extremes.
Provide ample hot or cold liquid, food, salt intake.
Train workers to recognize symptoms of extreme exposure and
to know what action to take.

GLOSSARY
Aid: To provide assistance, support, or relief.
Annex: To append or attach, especially to a larger or more significant
thing.
Arising: To get up, as from a sitting or prone position, rise.
Assess: To determinate the value, significance, or extend of, appraise.
Disease: A condition or tendency, as of society, regarded as abnormal
and harmful.

Enact: To make in to law.

Field: A broad, level, open expanse of land.
Framework: A structure for supporting or enclosing something else,
especially a skeletal support used as the basis for something being
constructed.
Fulfill: To bring into actually, effect or make real.
Headline: The title or heading of an article, especially in a newspaper,
usually set in large type.
Ignite: To cause to burn.
Inflow: The act or process of following in or into.
Initial: Of, relating to, or occurring at the beginning.
Lack: Deficiency or absence.
Mask: A covering worn on the face to conceal ones identity.
Milestone: A stone marker set up on a roadside to indicate the distance
in miles from a given point.
Occur: To take place, come about.
Outflow: The act or process of following out.
Phenomena: A fact, occurrence, or circumstance observed or
observable.
Prior: The superior of house and community in certain religious orders.
Pump: Any device for compressing, driving, raising, or reducing the
pressure of a fluid.
Render: To give a mechanical drawing, as in elevation, a more or less
complete indication of shades and shadows.
Response: A bid replying to a partners bid or double.
Skill: Competent excellence in performance, expertness, dexterity.
Split: To divide the air current into separate circuits to ventilate more
than one section of the mine.
Stack: A large, usually conical, circular, or rectangular pile of hay, straw,
or the like.
Stream: A body of water following in a channel or watercourse, as a
river, rivulet, or brook.
Toll: A payment or fee exacted by the state, the local authorities, for
some right or privilege, as for passage along a road or over a bridge.
Trigger: A small projecting tongue in a firearm that, when pressed by
the finger, actuates the mechanism that discharges the weapon.
LINK:
http://sibulgem.unilibre.edu.co:2058/lib/bibliounilibre/detail.action?
docID=10619610&p00=business+of+safety
%3A+managing+occupational+industrial+risks