Working in Heat and Humidity (tunnels)

[firewiretom]

Hi All, I'm an ex operational sub officer,  now in working in construction Health Safety and Coordination. I am currently working on an energy project on the Isle of Dogs in London. Part of the project requires work in a tunnel below the River Thames, the tunnel is hummid and warm (due to the heat from 132 kv cables) and the work involved will be arduous and sustained.

I recall a document about wrist cooling and have seen battery operated air wrist cooling devices in the Middle East - however coming from a health and safety perspective I need to risk assess the potential injury and illness and prevent the over-heating of operatives occuring.

I am presently looking at forced air ventilation and hydration along with personal fitness.

To assisst in the pre works documentation, would anyone be able to provide information on the temperatures and effects of working in raised temperature and humidity. Or direct me to any papers or publications.

Thanks in anticipation.

Tom

[Kaiser]

The body works comfortably at it's notmal temperature of 37 degrees it only takes 1/2 a degree raise in the core body temperature for problems to start occuring. Wrist cooling is a really effective way of cooling the bodies core temperature as about 90% of the blood in your body circulates through your radial arteries and around your body in a very short space of time.  I'm sure there are more specific statistics but I always use wrist cooling if possible.

[Chunty]

When we were looking at the implications of conducting FBT at the airport I downloaded a document which I am sure came from the DCLG website with a title something along the lines of 'Physiological Impact of Working in Heat' (as near as dammit), it was a bit deep in places but actually turned out to be very useful when justifying and assessing our need. Once the project was complete I binned it or I would have sent it up to you

If you go to the DCLG website and type 'physiological' in the documents search box I'm sure it will pop up.

[Tom Sutton]

Check out the following they may be of some use.   http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/mines07.pdf   http://info.ogp.org.uk/Geophysical/reports/H7.pdf

 http://www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/information/heatstress.htm

[jaxter]

Working in Heat and Humidity can be dangerous for your health in many aspects. to avoid this you should take some measures. I think you should first consult a doctor or experienced person so that he could guid you regarding the conditions in which you are working.

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