• Joe Lombardi

The New System that Monitors Workers' Body Temperatures - Is It Here to Stay?

With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, there have been many new innovations in hopes to keep construction workers safe and monitored at all times. Health monitoring firm "Kenzen" has recently created an arm band with a pairing phone app that will monitor detect heat illnesses.

The arm band is designed to go around the bicep of the construction worker. This will allow safety supervisors to look at the app that is connected with the armband and see any suspicious activity, such as a raised body temperature or increased heart rate. Though the patch is not made specifically for COVID-19, it may be able to detect it considering its features regarding body temperature. Safety supervisors will get alerts if there is any abnormal activity.

Kenzen discovered that construction workers are less likely to stop working on their own terms and will likely drive themselves to exhaustion. In addition, it makes more sense for a safety supervisor to oversee all of the Kenzen bands as opposed to workers monitoring their own because phones can be seen as a distraction on the worksite and can be disruptive to the workflow.

There are a few options as to what workers can do when their body temperature goes up. Since it is now summer, many workers can suffer from exhaustion and overheat, so a common option is to sit out for a few minutes and get a drink of water. With that being so common, it's likely that many sites will add more water stations to their grounds in order to prevent dehydration or exhaustion. Another option is that you can leave the worksite depending on the illness. Obviously, if you have further complications and your illness ends up being COVID-19, you will need to quarantine for 14 days. For other illnesses though, you will go about it as usual.

Similar to Kenzen, Shawmut Design and Construction has created Feevr, a "device that uses artificial intelligence to detect elevated temperatures in groups of people to determine if any workers might have a fever without having to come into physical contact with the individual."

Though the product is still in limited release, but contractors are able to test the product currently because it is available for the fall, meaning that they are allowed to try it in order to see if they are willing to purchase it later on.

For Educational Purposes Only – Not to be relied upon as financial, tax, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the author/presenter and all data is derived from sources believed to be reliable.

14 views0 comments