Most heat safety program measurements rely on either the environment or the body: heat index, temperature, hydration, or heart rate. Almost none measure the variable that fails first, cognition. Heat degrades attention, judgment, and decision-making before core temperature ever spikes, and long before a worker feels unwell. Read the narrative of most heat incidents and a bad decision sits early in the timeline, before any recordable injury, yet no conventional program tracks it.
In this session, Dr. Douglas Casa of the Korey Stringer Institute and Randall Arms of Epicore Biosystems pair the science with the field. Dr. Casa brings decades of research on exertional heat illness, hydration, and preventing heat-related harm across sport, the military, and industry. Randall brings a practitioner's view of what heat safety looks like when production pressure meets high-risk, non-routine work. Together they make the case that cognition is the missing metric in occupational heat safety: when judgment starts to slip, why individual variation means group thresholds miss the workers most at risk, and what safety leaders can measure on the worker today to close the gap between compliance and protection. Attendees will leave with a practical way to treat cognition as a leading indicator, not a post-incident explanation.
Participants will learn to identify key heat stress risk factors, understand the importance of acclimatization, recognize early warning signs and symptoms ranging from mild heat rash to life threatening heat stroke, and apply proven prevention strategies such as hydration, rest, shade, and work planning. The session also covers basic response actions and best practices that can be adapted to any general industry work environment. Whether your workforce operates outdoors, in hot indoor settings, or around heat generating equipment, this webinar will equip you with the knowledge needed to help keep workers safe when the heat is on.
In this webinar, experts Kerry Schimelfenig and Paul Sung will explore how emerging technologies, worker feedback and field-driven innovation influence workplace safety solutions. They’ll highlight the growing role of connected safety technology, practical approaches to heat stress prevention and how manufacturers and safety professionals are collaborating to improve PPE performance across diverse work environments. Attendees will gain insight into the challenges safety professionals face today and learn how organizations are evaluating new approaches to improving comfort, fit, usability and worker acceptance without compromising protection.