Heat
The climber I work with was spent Thursday after two days with the humidex in the mid 100s, so he took the day off. His call-it rained later anyways.
Heat exhaustion and more severely heat stroke are very dangerous situations to find yourself in, especially when working in an environment with the dangers tree workers are routinely exposed to.
I hydrate all night, use a moderate amount of salt to keep my electrolyte levels up and drink cool, not cold water through out the day, sometimes upwards to two gallons (cold water is bad on my stomach) I personally can not stand Gatorade, both in terms of taste and high cost for what is essentially unfizzy soda, watered down and with the addition of some salts. The rate you see you kids guzzling this stuff it is no wonder a lot have weight problems, because it is empty calories. If you need some flavour in your water, try watered down fruit juice with the addition of some salt-grapefruit works great. As much as you like that morning coffee, caffeine, a diuretic, accelerates water loss, as does all the brewskies you indulged in the night before (That is the reason one is so thirsty after drinking more than you should have the night before). It is amazing the number of products that contain caffeine these days, Mountain Dew and a lot of those power drinks are loaded with the stuff. If you are going to indulge in either alcohol or caffeine, hydrate with an equal amount of water prior to lessen the effects of the diuretic. Alcohol is just about the worst thing you can take in conditions of extreme heat (or cold).
They were really big on this problem and its prevention in the Army after an Officer Cadet undergoing a route march in 100F heat died at Farnham, QC in 1998. Kept on going, no doubt in a stupour, motiviated by group dynamics that perceive falling out as a weakness or failing(I can see this happening on a crew of young guys doing removals or other heavy work!), and incompetant and untrained leadership failed to recognize the signs of heat exhaustion and stroke until he dropped. Poor kid died two days later never coming out of a coma with damaged internal organs because his internal pemp was over 107F when they got him to the hospital.
Look up the signs of heat exhaustion on a web site and keep your eyes open for symptoms in yourself and fellow workers.
And yes the poison ivy is bad here right now too.
