Heat Stress includes a variety of different conditions that occur when the body is subjected to excessive heating, and eventually stressed due to over-heating.
Humans perspire or sweat when they get hot. This sweating is the process the body uses to cool itself down, by releasing water through the skin.In order to effectively perspire or sweat, the body needs excess water to sweat out, and if it “runs dry”, so to speak, it becomes stressed. Just like a radiator in a car keeps the engine cool, if it runs out of water, the engine heats up very rapidly and then seizes.

Human bodies are the same – if we cannot maintain a regular perspiration process to keep the body cool and functioning correctly, the body quickly over-heats and becomes stressed. We know when we are thirsty, out mouths get dry – the body tells us it needs water. However, as with perspiration, the body water is used up faster than we know, and generally in hot conditions, and exterting ourselves under high temperatures, by the time we realize we are thirsty, it can be too late. By the time we drink and the water gets absorbed into the different body organs that are becoming de-hydrated, the body is already going into stress.

The degree of over-heating causes different types of Heat Stress. If you are going to be located or working, doing physical exercise or operating in a close, airless, heated or high humidity area then the fitter you are, and the better physical condition you are in, the less likelihood there is of developing Heat Stress.

NOTE: This module is not intended to give you specific Medical Knowledge.
It is an Awareness Module through which certain symptoms can be better understood, and working conditions properly managed, to ensure Heat Stress does not become a major safety factor. It is not intended to replace the need for expert diagnosis and Medical Attention when someone if feeling unwell.

In all cases, when feeling ill, go and see a Medical Doctor.