Everyone knows staying hydrated is important, but not everyone really understands what’s in store when dehydration takes over.
Fluids are essential for regulating body temperature, lubricating joints and eyes, facilitating proper digestion and removing toxins from the body. But employers should take notice that dehydration affects more than just workers’ personal well-being.
Dehydration reduces concentration and reaction time, resulting in decreased cognitive and motor skills. Studies have shown it only takes 2-percent dehydration to cause impaired performance in tasks that require attention and motor or memory skills. This kind of impaired performance is risky for anybody, but it poses a particularly severe risk to workers who operate or work near heavy machinery. A 2015 study at Loughborough University found test subjects committed a significantly higher number of driving errors when driving while dehydrated. Shockingly, their performance was as poor as subjects completing similar tests while driving at the legal blood alcohol limit.
Dehydration does not only affect attention motor and memory skills, though. Numerous studies have also linked the effect of dehydration to productivity losses. A 1-percent drop in hydration can cause up to a 12-percent drop in productivity. At 3-4 percent dehydration, productivity plunges by an astounding 25-50 percent.
To avoid the staggering outcomes dehydration has on productivity and individual health, employers must take some common sense steps to prevent it from happening. Employers should teach workers — especially those whose jobs involve demanding physical labor and exposure to extreme environments — the importance of dehydration and how to prevent it.
While environments where work is performed in the sun, heat and humidity are most commonly associated with dehydration, the same thing can happen in extreme cold, as well as indoors at factories, restaurant kitchens and laundry service providers. This is because, in addition to temperature, hydration is also affected by factors like illness; quick breathing, which uses bodily fluids at a faster rate; and the use of caffeinated, alcoholic or energy drinks, which may act as diuretics, causing the body to increase the rate of urination output.
While the recommended daily intake varies depending on age, climate and physical activity level, workers should aim to drink about one cup of fluids every 15-20 minutes, even when not feeling thirsty. To do that, they must have continual access to fluids. But not all fluids are created equal. Water is the most important fluid, but the body also needs to replace the potassium and sodium lost through sweat. Potassium and sodium help transmit electrical signals between cells, and when their amounts get too low, it can cause a dangerous and sometimes deadly imbalance in the body.
Sqwincher’s full line of hydration products are carefully formulated to replenish workers with the fluids, sodium and potassium they need to stay hydrated, healthy and productive on the jobsite. Offering ready-to-drink, single servings, powderpacks, liquid concentrates and the popular Sqweeze® Pops, Sqwincher is the only performance drink specifically designed for industry.
For more information, visit www.sqwincher.com or call (800) 654-1920.
