Smart Tools to Help Monitor Heat Stress

Smart Tools to Help Monitor Heat Stress

When it comes to beating the heat, technology is changing the game. Workers in industries from agriculture and construction to manufacturing and welding, and many in between, face the threat of heat-related illness. Proper controls can protect these workers, and new advancements are offering the enhanced ability to stop heat stress in its tracks.

From wearables to internet-connected environmental monitoring devices and smartphone apps, smart tools can play a vital role in keeping workers safe.

 

Wearable Devices

Not all workers face the same level of personal risk for heat stress, as outlined in the Hub’s Guide to Heat Stress Management for the Vulnerable Worker. The true risk level depends on the type and intensity of the work and the exposure to heat, which are different across individuals performing different tasks. Wearables devices provide a more tailored method of measuring individualized heat stress faced by specific workers by logging real-time measurements from their bodies.

• Arm or Wrist Sensors: These lightweight bands can measure health indicators including skin temperature, heart rate, and hydration level.
• Patches: Disposable and reusable options detect measurables like skin temperature and sweat rate.
• In-Ear Sensors: Because of their location near the brain’s thermoregulatory center, responsible for maintaining body temperature, these sensors provide estimates of an individual’s core temperature. They can be worn discreetly like Bluetooth earpieces.
• Chest Straps: These can measure heart rate and heart rate variability, estimate your core temperature, and sometimes measure breathing rate.

Wearables help detect early signs of heat stress in individuals. They can often connect with mobile apps to create alerts when readings reach designated warning levels. They can alert individual workers to slow down, halt work, or seek cooling based on their personal readings.

 

Environmental Monitoring Devices

While wearables track individual data, environmental monitoring tools assess ambient conditions to determine general risk for heat stress. These insights are useful for supervisors planning the workday.

• Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Monitors: WBGT Monitors provide a comprehensive assessment of heat stress, accounting for factors such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle, and cloud cover.
• Heat Index Meters: These tools calculate the “feels like” temperature by combining air temperature and humidity readings.

While these monitors may not be “smart” tools in and of themselves, they can often be connected to the internet to provide real-time data on smartphones and other devices.

 

Apps

Smartphone apps play a key role in heat stress prevention, empowering workers with insights to stay safe and aiding supervisors in tracking working conditions for their teams.

• OSHA-NIOSH Heat Safety Tool: Designed to help you plan outdoor work activities, this app offers a real-time heat index, hourly forecast, and risk levels based on your location. It identifies risk levels for your site and offers recommendations based on those levels.

• AIHA Heat Stress App: This app combines data from the National Weather Service with individualized factors like workload intensity and clothing type to identify your risk level for heat stress and offer health recommendations. Version 2.0 released in May 2025 offers tools for indoor workers, accounting for factors such as indoor temperature, relative humidity, and hot equipment or materials.

 

Implementing Smart Tools

The right tools for your jobsite will depend on a variety of factors. What type of work does your team do? Is the work conducted indoors or outdoors (or both)? Is everyone in the same location or spread out over multiple sites? Understanding your specific needs will help you identify the smart tools most helpful for you.

As with everything related to safety, training is key. Workers should be educated on how to use these tools, interpret their readings, and act when necessary.

Utilizing the devices and apps mentioned here can bolster your heat stress prevention program. Technology alone can’t prevent heat stress, but it can provide access to invaluable data to help with decision-making around work schedules and protective measures, helping you keep workers safe.

Tags: Heat Stress, Wearable Devices, AIHA Heat Stress App, OSHA NIOSH Heat Safety Tool, Smart Tools,

Resource Reviews

---

Related Resources