Matt Brearley provided invaluable learnings about environmental heat load and heat stress, arriving in the middle of a heat wave where the risk of heat exhaustion was a daily grind.  We asked Matt to stay on site for four days and held toolbox talks in each work area, ensuring that everyone on site had the opportunity to ask questions and resolve any misconceptions about how to prevent heat exhaustion, and how to maintain hydration with practical tips for water intake and diet.  Taking Matt on a tour of each work area was the right decision, as most workers were keen to talk to Matt ‘one on one’, which gave them direct access to the “Heat Doctor’s” knowledge and insight.  And as it was, each work area presented various levels of environmental heat load, so the blokes were not shy in taking Matt to task, as well as sharing their own experiences with heat stress.  The payoff was a definite reduction in heat stress incidents to zero, and we thank Matt for his down to earth approach to teaching us how to manage Occupational Heat Stress.

​