Transcript of Dehydration Message from Craig Armitage, the Department of Labour’s head of Workplace Health and Safety

“At work being hot and tired is a recipe for disaster. People can feel tired and therefore they make more mistakes and in an industry like farming when you make mistakes you put yourself at risk of being seriously injured and unfortunately in the summer months you put yourself at risk of being killed.

“One of the biggest issues for the coming summer - it’s going to be a hot summer - will be dehydration, so people not drinking enough water puts them at risk of becoming tired, their productivity goes down and they risk making mistakes. So it’s really important that people think about water, not just because they’re thirsty. By the time you’re feeling thirsty it’s probably too late. You’re already partly dehydrated so you really need to drink water at quite regular intervals during the day and farming provides an ideal opportunity to do that.

“With a bit of forethought and making water available on the farm or on vehicles there’s lots of opportunity when you’re stopping to open the gate - all sorts of little pauses like that - when having a quick drink of water is a really excellent idea. Without that water people’s performance, their concentration starts to decrease as the temperature goes up and that poor performance doesn’t just affect their productivity, it also affects their safety.

“There’s a range of other things that people can do to try and cope with the hot weather - particularly important that people plan the work during the day so that heavier work is done during cooler periods. If that’s not possible try doing that work in a shaded area behind a shelter belt, in a barn as much as possible. Now there’s some work that you can’t avoid doing out in the open and it will be done during the middle of the day so the traditional things that maybe some of us take for granted, but it’s really useful to remind people of around sunhats, suntan lotion, those sorts of things are really important. But the water, drinking regularly, avoiding dehydration - that’s one of the simplest things that people can do to stop people becoming tired, losing concentration and making mistakes.”