Podcast #2 Heat Safety: Maintaining Health and Productivity in Extreme Summer Temperatures

Send us your Questions for Jeremiah and Dan

Discover how to safeguard your health and productivity while working in the scorching summer heat. Ever wondered if your hydration routine is up to par? Tune in to learn essential strategies for preventing dehydration with tools like liquid IVs, salt tablets, and low-sugar options like pickle juice. We'll share practical tips on recognizing the early signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and why taking immediate action can prevent severe health consequences on the job. Plus, get valuable advice on planning your hydration needs to ensure you stay safe and efficient in those high-temperature conditions.

Join us as we uncover the challenges of working in extreme heat and the critical importance of effective communication within a company. Hear a compelling real-life story about a new tech who discovered how frequent breaks during a sweltering Arizona summer significantly impacted production. This led to an important discussion with the job site owner about adjusting schedules to prioritize worker safety. We'll also delve into the complexities of managing work hours during the summer, addressing the genuine concerns workers have about their safety and well-being. Don't miss this episode filled with actionable insights to keep you safe and efficient in the heat!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
I need to have.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Right.

Speaker 1 (00:02):
So liquid IVs, salt tablets, like I said, when I'm
on the road I hit the gasstation and I'll grab Gatorade
and waters for everyone yeah,even if not a snack Right To
make sure that we have food andwater, things like that.
But my go-to is, like I said,you know, pickle juice, and I'll
drink that at night rightbefore I go to bed.

(00:23):
I'm not like taking a jar ofpickle juice to the job site or
anything, but you can.
You can actually buy the littleshots of pickle juice and gas
nowadays, and you see, it.
Um.
So yeah, that's pickle juice.
Liquid IVs.
Like I said, I don't leave homewithout just because if I get
in a situation where I'm feelinga little sideways, like the
liquid IVs kind of like for meis the last resort.

(00:43):
Yeah.
Like the liquid IV is kind oflike for me is the last resort.
Yeah, like I know I've gone toofar because I'll drink water
all day.
Um, don't drink.
I don't drink Powerade, orespecially Powerade, because
it's mostly freaking sugar.
Yeah, um, gatorade is mostlysugar unless you get like the
zeros and all the sugar.
So I I highly tell guys, don'tdrink Powerade or these high
sugar um rehydrating things,because they don't work.

(01:03):
They actually make it worse.
Yeah, um, but that's really meis salt tablets, liquid ivs,
because I'm always I'm planningfor the worst and hoping for the
best right so that's kind of mything yeah, yeah, and we've
gotten to where.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Um, especially summertime, if we do something
dumb and we run out of water, wejust shut down there.
We're not going to stressourselves out that much, we
don't.
We don't need it that bad thatwe can't just stop.
Run to the store real quick,grab cold bottles of water out
of the fridge and another packof water throwing the ice chest.

(01:38):
But same thing those Gatoradezeros, like they're on my little
subscription from Amazon FruitPunch.
If you touch the Fruit Punchesout of my trailer you're
possibly going to get knockedout.
Fruit Punch is a solid one.
That's my number one go-to.
Every once in a while they handme a grape one.

(01:58):
I'm good with that, but you cankeep the other flavors, so
we're not going anywhere withoutthose.
It's too easy anymore.
We're not going to keep goingif somebody walks in and goes
hey, this is the last bottle ofwater in the ice chest.
We just shut the valves on thegun and just stop.

(02:22):
Even if a store is across thestreet, why put yourself in the
situation where you've alreadydone something stupid?

Speaker 1 (02:29):
yeah, because once you're thirsty, it's too late.
Yeah, once you start to feel athirst that you can't quench,
you're done you should stop forthe day, because you are right
on the edge of heat exhaustion,yes, and on the path to heat
stroke, right?
Um, and that's what I try.
If you're hot and not sweating,it's too late, yeah.
If you're hot and thirsty andyou can't stop being thirsty

(02:49):
even after you drink a freaking,then you need to stop and take
a break, because that's I tryand tell everyone else, like if
you're feeling heat exhaustion,yeah, stop yeah if you keep
going, it's you're playing withfire.
You're a couple steps away fromheat stroke, and heat stroke is,
if anyone here has ever had itit is brutal, it's painful and

(03:11):
it takes days, if not a week, toget over yeah you're not going
to go back to work the next dayand be all freaking hunky-dory
happy about it if you have heatstroke, you're out for a while.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
So yeah, yeah.
And then you know, just watchthe signs.
If you're cramping up, you'redone for the day.
If you go to bed that night andyou wake up in the middle of
the night and you're cramped up,you're probably done for the
next day.
Or you're foolish like me andgo no, no, no, I'm going to

(03:42):
climb.
Double stack.
Scaffolding is free today.
You know that's and.
But your body's going to tellyou where these limits are.
We just have to be wise enoughto listen, and I think that's
important, an important lessonfor a lot of us.
I don't believe I'm the onlyone in the world that does that.

(04:05):
No, thanks, I'm tough enough tomake it through.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
No, and I I have a story to kind of go with this.
He, I try to tell guys this.
Look, I was.
I was a new to being a tech.
I'd been a contractor, had myown rigs, all this stuff for
many, many years and it wasprobably my first month of being
a tech for swg or thing andgone to the job sites running
around.
You know this guy's like ownercalls me and he's like hey, you

(04:28):
know, my guys are great.
They get a set to a set and ahalf every day, depending on the
applicator, day in and day out.
It's like clockwork.
He knows his applicators, youknow he can spray, he's like.
But All of a sudden, out ofnowhere, I dropped a half a set
a day and three quarters of aset a day.
He's like I can't figure it out.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
I'm like okay, I'm pretty sure I know what's going
on here.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
But I humored him.
Okay, I'm going to go to yourjob site, so.
I'll check with your sprayers.
We'll see what's going on.
Mind you, dan, this is Arizona,may June.
Right, yeah, arizona, may June.
I'm pretty sure I know what'sgoing on.
I go to the job site and I'm inmy truck investigating.
You watch the guys Summertime.
You see the guys stop every 45minutes to an hour, come down,

(05:16):
drink a bottle of water and goback up.
Is he doing this in thewintertime?
No, he's not.
He's grinding through it.
He's braking every hour on thehour to not get heat exhaustion.
He's stopping when he knows heneeds to stop drinking his water
and going back to work.
Is this taking a hit onproduction?
Yes, it is.
Is the guy doing what he needsto do to stay healthy and keep?

(05:37):
Yes, he is.
Yes, the owners of the companydidn't see this because they've
never gone on the job site andthere weren't applicators.
They didn't understand.
You're in this attic.
It's 130 degrees.
Your body can only take so much, right?
So I go back to the guys likehey, man, I figured it out.
He's like what he's like.
Your applicators don't want todie.

(06:05):
It's like I was being drasticand a little far, but that's the
long and short of it's likeyour guys are breaking so they
don't get any exhaustion, sothey can keep doing their jobs
in the summertime.
You either need to add an houror so to the day for your breaks
and your estimates or you needto understand this is how it
works, or not.
Spray foam in the summertime ifyou have a problem with
production.
Um, he's like and he instantlywas like oh my gosh, it's like I

(06:27):
didn't even think about that.
Yeah, man, like they're notlazy, right?
They're just changing theirschedule for the summertime to
do the same job they did and youtell them they need to.
You know they have eight hoursin the summertime.
They should have nine.
Yeah, they need to prolongthese things.
Like oh my gosh, and it's like,once again, getting this
knowledge out to guys isimportant because not only does

(06:48):
the applicator need to know, butthe owners need to know, the
ops managers need to know, theproduction managers need to know
.
Yeah, because that guy, hecouldn't believe it, he thought
his guys were sloughing offright.
He's like oh my gosh, herealized.
He realized he had to give himmore time or, like I said,
adjust his schedule to make surethat during these times, these
guys can get their jobs done andbe safe.
It was just a story I tell a lotof guys because like, don't

(07:10):
assume your crew leader or yourops manager, your owner knows
yeah what you're doing.
This guy, you know, didn't havetime to go to the job site.
How could he know that's wherewe come in?
And once you told him he saidoh my gosh, I gotta you know.
He started having water, startedgiving you an extra hour in the
day to account for those breaksand things like that right so
once again, it's it's importantto get that information out so

(07:32):
these guys understand why you'redoing what you're doing, and
you know, you're just trying tobe safe.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's not always yeah, is there?

Speaker 1 (07:39):
is there some guys that?
Yes, there is some guys thatmilk the clock.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
That's you know.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Right, Unfortunately that's something you find, but
in these cases, like especiallyin the summertime, it's you know
there's a different storybehind it, Right, and I always
tell guys that it's like.
You know, pay attention and doyour due diligence to understand
why things are going on.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Once again, it was just these guys trying yeah, he
didn't have the information orthe data to make this decision.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
He's like oh, help me out here, I gotta figure out
why I'm.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, you know have this extra hour a day, every day
, when it's, you know, june hitsright yeah, exactly yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
They don't want to die they don't want to die.
They don't want to die, so