Hydration and workplace fatigue was a crucial talking point during the latest Workplace Health and Safety Show in Brisbane, with Body Armour highlighting an underestimation of risks in heavy industry.
The director of the Brisbane-based manufacturer of hydration, recovery and performance products Toni Mc Quinn said that there is a growing gap in how the industry addresses the human body, and how it performs under stress.
“This is not a criticism at all, it’s a signal I guess, a sign of an individual masking fatigue or compensating for something, and the environment we’re in has created [dehydration] to be normal,” he said.
That “normal” often includes workers starting shifts fatigued, relying on caffeine and energy drinks, and pushing through physically demanding conditions without fully understanding the physiological consequences.
The core message Mc Quinn wanted to deliver is that hydration is not just a health issue but a safety issue.
By applying principles from sports science to heavy industry, Body Armour aims to bridge that gap, treating hydration and recovery not as afterthoughts, but as essential components of workplace safety.
Mc Quinn cited a study by Georgia Tech University in the United States, where researchers, during a session where 400 healthy adults were placed in similar working conditions, with long shifts, heavy sweat rates, hot conditions, recorded a hydration drop of three per cent.
“This is not really extreme at all right? But those individuals had a 52 per cent drop in attention, 40 per cent drop in motor coordination, and a 24 per cent drop in executive function,” Mc Quinn said.
“That’s everything from forward thinking, judgement, decision-making, and if you put that in terms of type of work we usually do, which is high-risk, it’s quite staggering numbers.”
The body’s response to heat and dehydration further compounds the risk, and as core temperature rises, the heart works harder to pump blood to the skin, triggering sweating as a cooling mechanism.
But Mc Quinn said this process also accelerates fluid and electrolyte loss, pushing workers closer to fatigue, reduced focus and, in extreme cases, heat illness.
Fatigue itself is often overlooked as an early warning sign, with Mc Quinn saying that the midday slump, one where the “care factor drops” is nearly always connected to nutrition and hydration.
“Your blood flow slows down when you start losing hydration, oxygen doesn’t get to the brain as quickly and fatigue persists,” he said.
“As we progress through the spectrum, a much, much worse outcomes presents itself, which is fatalities, heat strokes and heat illnesses.”
For heavy industry workers, described by Mc Quinn as “industrial athletes”, hydration demands are significantly higher than the general population, often reaching four to six litres per day depending on conditions.
However, with the workload on a daily basis, simply drinking water is not enough.
Electrolytes, including sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, play a critical role in allowing the body to retain water and support muscle and cognitive function.
“Without electrolytes in the body, the body really struggles to retain water,” Mc Quinn said.
He said that despite this, many workers continue to rely on high-sugar, high-caffeine drinks to get through shifts, a habit that can worsen the problem.
Excess sugar can inhibit the body’s ability to absorb nutrients, while caffeine raises core temperature and can remain in the system for hours, further disrupting recovery and sleep.
Mc Quinn emphasised that improving hydration outcomes requires more than simply providing fluids on-site.
Instead, it calls for a shift towards education, helping workers understand how their bodies respond to heat, stress and workload.
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