By Aubrey Schlimgen
When we think about rising temperatures, we often think about how our livestock and animals can be affected. But tend to overlook the ones who are responsible for putting food on our tables.
Melissa Ploeckelman Brown works as an outreach specialist for the National Farm Medicine Center in Marshfield. She now shares stories and messages to help ensure safety in farming as it is one of the most risky jobs. One of those risks is being a farmer working in the heat.
“We really have to make sure our bodies acclimatize,” Melissa informs us. “Because our bodies go through a heat stress, and we have to make sure we are careful when you go work in the heat.”
People who are at the most risk for heat stress are those 65 years or older, overweight, have heart disease, high blood pressure, and taking medication. Other groups include pregnant women and youth.
“Youth have a harder time sweating than adults,” Melissa tells Mid-West Farm Report. “As they go through puberty, they sweat less, so they’re more likely to get heat stress or heat exhaustion.”
Heat illness happens anytime a person’s body reacts to the heat and feels sick. The stages of heat illness are listed below as follows:
- Heat Stress: The first sign of heat illness is simply stress. Can be managed with breaks in the shade and drinking water.
- Heat Exhaustion: Can be a bit more serious. A person can feel faint, dizzy, have excessive sweating, or differing pulse.
- Heat Stroke: The most serious of heat illnesses. A person may have all of the symptoms plus throbbing headache, sweating stops, body temperature above 103 degress, and the skin is dry and hot to the touch.
If this happens, call 911 immediately and do everything to cool down. Use ice water on a rag to cool down armpits, behind the knees, inside the elbow, and neck, until help arrives. Do not just spray the person down with really cold water, as you may send their body into shock, but getting them wet with cool water is good.
You should be taking a swallow of water every 15 minutes even if you don’t feel thirsty. Without enough water, a body cannot function properl,y and a person becomes dehydrated.
Symptoms of mild dehydration include:
- Feeling Thirsty
- Dry or sticky mouth
- Not peeing much
- Headaches
- Muscle Cramps
Symptoms of severe dehydration are:
- Not peeing or peeing a very dark yellow color
- Dizziness
- Rapid heartbeat
- Rapid Breathing
- Sunken Eyes
- Fainting
“It’s really important that we allow our body to naturally cool down when we are working extra hard,” Melissa emphasizes.
You can find heat illness prevention trainings at https://vetmedbiosci.colostate.edu/hicahs/
