Examining Management and Employees’ Perceptions of Occupational Heat Exposure and the Effectiveness of a Heat Stress Prevention Intervention on Safety and Well-Being among Natural Gas Construction Workers: A Qualitative Field-Based Study
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Design
2.2. Study Site and Location
2.3. Study Population and Participant Recruitment
2.4. Study Materials
2.5. Data Collection Procedures
2.6. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Participants
3.2. Content Findings
3.3. Overview of Findings
3.3.1. Heat Stress Intervention Context
- A.
- Services and resources to prevent heat-related conditions
“… just in case like something were to happen, if you were to get hurt or heat stress, the first thing they’re [employer/safety officer] going to look at is this [waterlog]… They’re going to say, hey, …, has he been drinking sufficient water? Yes, around 6:30 he has ounces, 32, 16, whatever it is. Has he been keeping up with him? And yes he’s been keeping up with it to stay safe and take care of it [heat exposure]”[Painter ID: 4].
- B.
- Heat stress prevention plan and worker safety
“We have urine color charts all over the place inside the port-a-can so the guys understand, hey, I’m peeing dark orange, that means I’m very dehydrated, versus I’m peeing clear, because I’ve had enough water …, they’re hearing all calls, explaining over the radio, the temperatures, and they got the flags flying, green, yellow, red, or black [depending on the temperature and the heat index levels]. … they see when they walk down the unit, they see two flags and it tells them, is it green, yellow, or red? Saying no, is it hot? There’s a big digital readout right there. And that scrolls showing the temperature right now, the projected time we’re going to go into the next category, on to the end of the day. … We’re making all calls throughout the day to make them aware that, hey, it’s 115 degrees. Work in the shade, take breaks, drink water”.[Safety officer ID: 21].
- C.
- Employee involvement and safety measures
“And on there [waterlog] you put out the hourly, … you write the date down and the time. You can put one hour, 17 o’clock, how many ounces of water did you drink? It could be 16, 32. If you had more, put that down … When … the temperature hits like a 100 or 100 plus, they want you to keep taking breaks every other hour, …”[Painter ID: 6].
“… when you [employees] come in the morning, … when you clock in, there’s supervisors waiting at the gate, checking everyone’s box, looking for energy drinks or anything that can dehydrate you and as well as the vendors we already on an agreement we already told them that they can’t sell any energy drinks period on this job”.[Safety officers ID: 20].
3.3.2. Factors Influencing Workers’ Safety
- A.
- Individual work practices and self-care
“… Everything that you want to do in that sun, it starts the day before. You want to make sure you get good sleep, you want to eat good, you want to make sure you get plenty of water, make sure you’re putting the salt in your body, so that’ll carry you on to the next thing [day]. Drink plenty of water. The day before, Yeah, so it will be in you before the next day. … You don’t want to start today and start drinking water. It will be too late. … So by the time you start sweating, you got water in you. Instead of you sweating now and trying to, I’m trying to put water back in you. To stay hydrated. …”[Painter ID: 15].
“… You get paid by the hour. You don’t have to rush nothing. Take your time. You don’t have to move with nobody. Move at your own pace. You know your body. It’s not a car racing out here”.[Painter ID: 10].
“… sometimes the task can be like something very tedious so you have to sit there with it patiently while the Sun’s beating down on you, you know … you have to really key in on what you’re doing because if not you’re messing up and so just all that pressure … from trying to make sure that this gets done properly and having the Sun beat down on you …, definitely affects you negatively”[Concrete finisher ID: 3].
- B.
- Colleagues’ influence on work practices (co-worker and supervisor)
“…, the old school, they don’t want to take a break. … It’s more [not taking break] of a right thing to them. …”[Helper painter ID: 18].
“Sometimes people will allow themselves to get pushed past their limit because of that team environment…My personal experiences is when you’re working in a crew, that’s basically a team. Say you’re a scaffold builder and you got eight guys in your crew, or a wire puller you got 20 guys in your crew If one guy stops, the whole operation stops. That creates pressure you know that’s a stressor. … But if that guy (doing concrete work) that’s trying to quit, he wants to quit and everybody else had to quit too, well that would make him think, maybe I can push a little bit more. Maybe I’ll wait for the next guy. And maybe the next guy is thinking the same thing, I will be waiting for the next guy. Once the next guy is thinking the same thing, … before you know it, you’ve got a whole group of guys that are very close to overheating”.[Safety officer ID: 21].
- C.
- Workplace challenges
“… like right now I’m in a tight spot, … And everything ain’t in the good spot. I can’t stand up straight, If I’m in an open spot it’s all good but if I’m in a tight spot no I cannot move like I want to move. I gotta move with it, not against it. … Basically I gotta stay more focused in a tight spot. Because I can just turn around and bum hit my head. … I’m tall, they put me in the spot where she [Helper painter ID: 9] should be at. And it’s not comfortable”.[Painter ID: 10].
“… Somebody like me whenever I drink water like I have to go to the bathroom, like 5–10 min later. … Not everybody’s the same so it [working on the scaffold] does keep me from drinking as much water because I don’t want to be coming up and down. So I would say that’s frustrating [working on the scaffold], … you might not be able to you know to take that break. You know that you can do [take breaks] if you were on the ground maybe 80% of the time. … Because not all the times you want to keep coming up and down … You’ll burn yourself up before you even get done with your job or even start your job, … then a lot of other guys are like that too especially with the scaffold. … we’ll sit there where we’re at and be like hey pass the water up here you know just to avoid from coming up and down you got a harness you got tools on …”[Scaffold Carpenter ID: 7].
3.3.3. Intervention Outcome and Worker Well-Being
- A.
- Intervention influence on worker well-being and QOL
“So, since they [employer-provided resources] are there for the positive effect, I believe that the only way that it will hinder your work is if you ignore the things they’re giving. … It [too much electrolyte] could [cause] stomachaches, cramps, It can put you in a position where you don’t sweat but you‘re taking more of it. …”[Painter ID: 11].
“If we didn’t have any controls or mitigations for these employees and they were just out here working their butts off all day long and we allowed the supervisors to push them [employees], that would be a very bad environment for them. So I think we definitely help them in all aspects, mentally, physically, their well-being at home and their families, all of it. How would I say that? Because if they came out here and just got worked like crazy all day long, they wouldn’t be able to function when they got home. They’d just go home and crash. That’d be the end of them”.[Safety officer ID: 21].
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Focus Groups (n = 19) | Interviews (n = 2) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gender | N (%) | Age Group (Years) | Age Group (Years) | ||||
18–24 | 25–54 | ≥55 | 18–24 | 25–54 | ≥55 | ||
Male | 15 (86.42) | 2 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Female | 6 (31.57) | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
What job entails | |||||||
Work outside under sun | 18 (85.71) | 2 | 14 | 2 | |||
Work inside and outside | 3 (14.28) | 2 | 1 |
Words | 6 Focus Groups (n = Frequency) | 2 Interviews (n = Frequency) | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Stroke (heat stroke) | 19 | - | 19 |
Shade (shaded area) | 28 | - | 28 |
Log (waterlog) | 30 | 27 | 57 |
Water | 200 | 63 | 263 |
Fruits | 31 | 6 | 37 |
Popsicles (electrolyte pops) | 26 | 5 | 31 |
Orange | 22 | - | 22 |
Snow cones | 32 | 4 | 36 |
Pickles | 17 | 7 | 24 |
Break | 133 | 33 | 166 |
Station (cooldown station) | 40 | 4 | 44 |
Alcohol, energy drink | 15 | 9 | 24 |
Foreman/supervisor | 14 | 26 | 40 |
Scaffold | 31 | 4 | 35 |
Safety | 58 | 31 | 89 |
Ground | 18 | - | 18 |
Sugar | 12 | 2 | 14 |
Care | 19 | - | 19 |
Lunch | 32 | - | 32 |
Fan | 42 | - | 42 |
Company | 30 | 9 | 39 |
Harness | 20 | 9 | 39 |
Themes | Subthemes |
---|---|
Heat stress intervention context | Services and resources to prevent heat-related conditions (workplace dynamic for summer) |
Heat stress prevention plan and worker safety | |
Employee involvement and safety measures | |
Factors influencing workers’ safety | Individual work practices and self-care |
Colleagues’ influence on work practices (co-worker and supervisor) | |
Workplace challenges | |
Intervention outcome and worker well-being | Intervention influence on worker well-being and QOL |
Yielded positive input |
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Idris, M.A.; Markham, C.; Mena, K.D.; Perkison, W.B. Examining Management and Employees’ Perceptions of Occupational Heat Exposure and the Effectiveness of a Heat Stress Prevention Intervention on Safety and Well-Being among Natural Gas Construction Workers: A Qualitative Field-Based Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21, 1255. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21091255
Idris MA, Markham C, Mena KD, Perkison WB. Examining Management and Employees’ Perceptions of Occupational Heat Exposure and the Effectiveness of a Heat Stress Prevention Intervention on Safety and Well-Being among Natural Gas Construction Workers: A Qualitative Field-Based Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2024; 21(9):1255. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21091255
Chicago/Turabian StyleIdris, Muinat Abolore, Christine Markham, Kristina D. Mena, and William B. Perkison. 2024. "Examining Management and Employees’ Perceptions of Occupational Heat Exposure and the Effectiveness of a Heat Stress Prevention Intervention on Safety and Well-Being among Natural Gas Construction Workers: A Qualitative Field-Based Study" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 21, no. 9: 1255. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21091255