The UK Department of Health and Social Care has issued new guidance addressing a critical but often overlooked occupational health hazard: heat stress from prolonged personal protective equipment use in clinical settings. Healthcare workers face significant thermoregulatory challenges when wearing full-body PPE, particularly gowns, gloves, masks, and eye protection, which create physical barriers that impair the body’s ability to dissipate heat through evaporative cooling and convection.
The guidance emphasises that risk is particularly acute during high ambient temperatures, high-intensity clinical work, and among workers with pre-existing health conditions or insufficient heat acclimatisation. UK health authorities recommend that healthcare facilities implement systematic risk assessments, environmental controls including improved ventilation and temperature management, and comprehensive worker monitoring protocols. These evidence-based mitigation strategies aim to identify vulnerable staff members early and prevent the progression of thermal strain to heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
Read the full article on GMJ Newsroom.
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