Lone Working in Heat: A Guide

Industries Most Affected

Heat stress occurs when the body heats up faster and higher than it can cool itself down. For lone workers, this is an especially huge problem, as they may not have anyone nearby to recognize symptoms.

Industries most at risk for lone working in heat include the following:

• Agriculture: Field workers are at a heightened risk of heat-related illnesses due to prolonged outdoor work and chronic dehydration.
• Landscaping and Gardening: Extended outdoor labor involving heavy equipment elevates the risk.
• Construction: Roofers, masons, and heavy machinery operators face heightened risk due to intense physical effort, direct sun exposure, and protective clothing that traps heat.
• Mining and Extraction: Underground and surface mining expose workers to intense temperature irregularities.
• Manufacturing: Workers in indoor settings with poor ventilation or climate control

Common Risks

Being exposed to these conditions can escalate quickly without prompt recognition and assistance, making heat stress a potentially life-threatening hazard, being exposed to heat face several serious risks, including:

• heat-related illnesses;
• dehydration;
• fainting or dizziness;
• fatigue and Weakness;
• increased Risk of Accidents ; and
• impaired judgment and concentration

These risks stress the need for regular monitoring, check-ins, proper hydration, rest breaks, and heat safety training for lone workers in hot environments.

Common Risks of Lone Working in Heat

Best Practices to Ensure Lone Worker Safety in Heat

To minimize the risk of heat stress and keep lone workers safe, it’s essential to follow proven strategies for staying cool and protected. Ensuring lone worker safety in hot conditions can sometimes require a heat illness prevention plan that includes the following key elements:

• Hydration and Rest: Encouraging regular water breaks and access to shade is critical to prevent dehydration and heat exhaustion. Digital solutions such as SafetyCulture offer digital inspection templates that allow workers to log hydration and rest breaks in real-time, ensuring these important measures aren’t forgotten, even when working solo.
• Work Scheduling: Avoid peak heat hours when possible and rotate shifts to minimize exposure. SafetyCulture’s scheduling tools, heat risk assessment reports, and analytics  enable employers to plan safer work shifts.
• Awareness: Teach workers to recognize heat illness symptoms and practice effective self-care. Platforms such as SafetyCulture also offer mobile-friendly Training modules that enable employers to develop interactive, user-friendly heat stress training programs that workers can access on their mobile devices, ensuring consistent education across all employees.
• Buddy System: While a physical buddy system is ideal, a lone worker app provides virtual support with scheduled check-ins, man-down alerts, and emergency panic buttons, ensuring lone workers can quickly get help if needed. However, it would be best to have lone worker safety app capabilities in one place with other work needs, as this can better streamline operations for both employers and workers.
• Emergency Response: Establish clear procedures for handling heat-related illness, including immediate access to first aid or panic buttons. SafetyCulture’s incident reporting and alert system enables lone workers to instantly notify supervisors or emergency responders if they show signs of distress.

Guiding Regulations

Heat exposure is a serious workplace risk that can affect employees in both indoor and outdoor settings. To help keep workers safe, including those working alone, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the US provides detailed guidelines and regulations to prevent heat-related illnesses and injuries.

According to OSHA’s Heat Exposure Statistics, millions of US workers face hazardous heat each year, leading to thousands of heat-related illnesses and fatalities. Most fatalities also occur on the first few days of work. Following this, OSHA emphasizes that lone workers in hot environments require special attention, as they may not have immediate assistance if symptoms develop.

To help manage this risk, OSHA’s Working Alone guidance (also known as OSHA 1915.84) highlights the need for regular monitoring and check-ins. It requires employers to set up scheduled visual or verbal check-ins to track worker well-being especially in hot high-risk conditions, ensuring a rapid response if a worker becomes incapacitated due to any form of heat illness.For example, a lone field worker working outdoors during a heatwave must be regularly monitored through phone or radio check-ins throughout the shift. The employer is responsible for providing the technician with access to water, shade, and rest breaks. Employers are also to be trained to spot early signs of heat illness.

By combining OSHA’s heat exposure guidelines with safety protocols for lone workers and modern technology, employers can better manage heat risks, stay compliant with regulations, and protect workers from the dangers of hot working conditions.

Meanwhile, in Australia, under Queensland’s Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws, employers have a legal duty to ensure the health and safety of their workers, which explicitly includes protecting workers from heat-related illness while working in hot or humid conditions. Though no specific legal temperature is stated at which work must stop, employers are required to conduct a thorough risk assessment on all work done in hot environments. This must consider all environmental factors and the physical condition of workers, with ongoing monitoring and supervision during hot weather done alongside it to identify and manage heat stress risks effectively.

While no specific UK legislation was identified regarding lone working in hot conditions, general health and safety laws still require employers to assess risks and protect workers from heat stress. An example is the  Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which places a duty on employers to ensure a safe working environment, including managing the hazards associated with working alone in high temperatures.