Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology researchers have identified heat stress as a growing safety concern in the building industry (and in mining and mineral exploration), and now an innovative smart vest has been developed to monitor the health of construction workers and geologists in real time.
Developed at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, the vest uses sensors to measure a worker body temperature and heart rate and sends the data wirelessly to a smartphone application, which instantly alerts users to any anomalies. The innovation comes amid concern at the growing number of heat-related accidents on construction sites and with geologists spending time in the field under high heat and humidity.
And this follows a NASA climate report warning that temperatures over the past decade have been the warmest in more than a century. Vice-Chancellor Research Fellow in RMIT School of Property, Construction and Project Management, Dr Ruwini Edirisinghe has been working on the smart vest concept for more than a year. She devised her heat stress vest as part of her research in to improving worker and geologist safety.
Heat stress can cause heat stroke and damage to body organs (kidneys) and the nervous system resulting in permanent disability or even death. A big part of the problem is some workers (and many geologists) do not recognize the early warning signs. This technological solution will hopefully change that.
National and international regulatory bodies such as SafeWork in Australia, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSH) in the U.S. and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK are increasingly recognizing heat stress hazards in the construction and mining industries.
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