Beating the Heat: Introducing the Blueforce WBGT Solution

The Blueforce WBGT Heat Illness Prevention solution has been designed through collaboration with EHS specialists specifically to provide an effective tool for monitoring workers and ensuring adherence to your organization’s heat safety protocols.

At the core of the solution is the Blueforce real-time awareness software platform combined with the rugged Nielsen-Kellerman Kestrel 5400 Heat Stress Tracker Wet Bulb Global Temperature (WBGT) meter . WBGT provides an accurate environmental measure of the risk of thermal stress taking into account not just temperature but also humidity, wind speed, sun angle, and cloud cover (solar radiation) and provides accurate heat index readings. The Blueforce software stack fused with the Kestrel 5400 enables full awareness of WBGT levels at the work site and throughout the organization.

Leveraging off the shelf smartphones and tablets and using the OSHA color coding system corresponding to risk levels, the system functions autonomously and enables supervisors both in the field and in centralized EHS monitoring centers with full awareness of heat risk. The information can be displayed at the job site so workers easily see on an appropriately colored screen what conditions they are working under and what the appropriate protocols are. EHS supervisors in central or regional offices can monitor in real-time on a map globally what their workers are facing whether they are inside facilities or out in the field.

Add-on capabilities are easily integrated as well, such as real-time physiological monitoring of workers in particularly hazardous environments and the ability to enable workers with mobile tools for panic signaling and streamlined real-time protocol adherence reporting. All of this is accomplished using off the shelf mobile devices loaded with the Blueforce software. The pages that follow will provide additional information and some specific use cases illustrating how this cost effective solution can increase worker safety and decrease liability for your company.

To learn more, download our free eBook: Beating the Heat: Preventing Heat-Related Illness with Blueforce.