Below is a transcript of our conversation with Dr. Micah Zuhl:
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. Some like the heat, some don't, but all of us need to be careful about the risk of heat stroke. Doctor Micah Zuhl is a Professor of Exercise Science in CMU’s School of Health Sciences. We talked about it, and I found out the first offense is, us.
Micah Zuhl:
Your body will do a pretty good job. It'll sweat, it'll remove heat, but it'll get to a point where it can't regulate any longer. Body temperature will continue to rise, and then that's when heat stroke occurs.
DN:
In a city setting, a lot more concrete, a lot more steel, things that can hold heat, reflect heat. And then we add on to that emissions in the air. All of these things and centering around obviously the risk of climate change. Given all that then are we seeing an overall increase of reported cases? And if so, are there certain areas where we are now seeing this to be more common?
MZ:
The area that I work in is within occupational heat stress or heat stroke, or heat illness. And so those numbers are expected to rise considerably. There's some really wild data that suggests by 20-30, someone will die from heat illness who works in the heat every 14 to 24 minutes, so, you know there's a lot of momentum, a lot of energy right now being put into how to protect workers, not just workers, but also people who are doing recreational activities in the heat that might be athletes as well. The predictions are pretty staggering in terms of what's going to be happening even within 10 years.
DN:
The hope, then, that if someone is out on a work site, an ice bath likely wouldn't be available, just the amount of cool water to (to) try to douse someone in that or one can only take in so much water in terms of (of) drinking something that's cooler. What might be the better approach?
MZ:
Yeah, it's a good point. First thing is, I'll (I'll) back up one step and the first thing is preventing it to get to that point and that (and that) requires education among the workers, like a buddy system. So hey, I'm watching your back. You're watching mine and hopefully you can recognize that someone's starting to experience some of the symptoms. The, and then therefore you can remove them from the heat, whether it's trying to put them in some type of air conditioned environment, cool water, cool towels. And if not on a work site, then you have to consider calling emergency services if (if) you don't have access to methods to cool them.
DN:
Are there recommendations in terms of how often workers should get some sort of a (a) little bit of a rest time to (to) drink some cool water, cool down some? Or rotate some people in and out, and, we'll be honest, we know that not everyone running a work site is going to adhere to those types of things. But what would be at least the recommendations that you understand so far, that would be the best in trying to lower that risk?
MZ:
OSHA has guidelines and they suggest that in certain temperatures, individuals should (should) operate under certain work rest cycles. So, for example, let's say it's 96°F outside. Individuals are recommended to work for 45 minutes and rest for 15 minutes and repeat that cycle throughout the day. In addition, there's hydration recommendations within that those time frames as well a certain amount of water is recommended to be consumed roughly every 20 minutes. There are guidelines. Now, how well these companies follow these guidelines? Workers follow these guidelines? That's not really well known. I think there's only three states that actually monitor that and that's a big challenge in the field is we don't know who's complying, who's following the guidelines, but these are tested methods and approaches to help prevent the rise in body temperature.
DN:
Doctor Micah Zuhl from the School of Health Sciences at Central Michigan University. Good luck as the (the) research moves forward and thank you for sharing the findings so far with us. Thank you.
MZ:
Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
