With summer comes sun and heat, two factors that impact the safety conditions on jobsites. Workers need the proper hydration and PPE to remain safe on the job during the hot days of summer. One company adds to its smart PPE system to lessen the worry of heat risk, Kenzen.
Kenzen adds two important features to its smart PPE system for monitoring workers’ heat risk on the job. Kenzen technology can track the heat susceptibility and sweat rate of individuals—key indicators in the detection and prevention of heat-related stress, injury, and fatality risk of workers in hot environments.
HEAT SUSCEPTIBILITY
The Kenzen system calculates heat susceptibility of a worker and then classifies them into low, moderate, or high heat-risk categories. Kenzen’s proprietary algorithm determines the person’s heat risk category by evaluating their medical or physical conditions, physical fitness, heat-acclimatization status, history of heat injury and illness, medications, chronic illnesses, and age. The classification does not reveal personal information or reasons why someone is in a particular heat risk category; it is only used to help supervisors monitor and manage people according to their individual heat susceptibility.
“Managers have so much to worry about at their worksite, including if their workers are physically able to work safely to get the job done well and on time,” says Nicole Moyen, vice president of research and development at Kenzen. “This new feature tells managers which workers to monitor closely on hot days, and when and how to alter an individual’s schedule or workload.”
SWEAT RATE MONITORING
Kenzen also has a new sweat rate monitoring feature that uses a worker’s information and physiological data to calculate and predict their sweat rate, in liters per hour. A manager can view an individual’s sweat rate on the Kenzen analytics dashboard, which also indicates how much water that person needs to drink each hour to stay hydrated. The data eliminates the guesswork in how to keep workers safely hydrated and makes the Kenzen system an even more valuable planning tool. Now managers can bring enough water to the worksite to hydrate their teams sufficiently based on each individual’s sweat rate and the predicted environmental conditions that day. Kenzen’s proprietary sweat rate feature gives a hydration plan that is accurate within one quarter of a liter (1 cup of water), so that every worker will know the specific amount of water they need to drink that day to stay safe.
“There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to hydration, which is why it’s important to use each person’s sweat rate for an individualized hydration plan,” says Moyen. “Dehydration is a major problem on worksites and increases the chances of someone getting a heat injury or illness, having an accident at the worksite, or suffering from cognitive impairment. Staying hydrated is a simple fix to avoid most of these problems.”
PPE WITH SENSORS
Kenzen devices worn by workers contain sensors that monitor, in real time, an individual’s physiological responses. The worker is warned when their core temperature is too high and they are in danger of a heat-related injury or illness via a smartphone app and a device vibration. Managers have a corresponding app that alerts them when a worker needs an intervention to stop work, rest, and hydrate, and a second alert for when it’s safe to return to work. EHS leaders use the Kenzen analytics dashboard to make decisions to minimize heat-related injury and illnesses on the jobsite.
With the Kenzen solution, only workers can view the details of their personal health information, while safety managers and other EHS leaders only see what’s necessary to keep the workers safe.
CLOSING THOUGHT
This summer, Kenzen has a rental program for companies to quickly deploy the technology with packages of 10, 20, and 50 devices. The program includes the monitoring app for managers and can be rented for a 2-month period online at store.kenzen.com, where training videos provide instructions for use and deployment.
For more information:
Founded in 2016, Kenzen is the premier physiological monitoring platform to keep workforces safe from heat, fatigue, and over exertion on the job while providing data driven insights to maintain productivity. For more information about heat stress and how to integrate the system into a safety plan, visit kenzen.com.
Modern Contractor Solutions, July 2021
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