Hot Dot - Exciting New Technology for Heat Exhaustion Management

An ECS client recently introduced us to the "Hot Dot" made by IonX in Lexington, KY. The Hot Dot is a small one inch "dot" which is placed on the skin to detect overheating.

The Hot Dot color shifts as demonstrated above. It starts out as a black dot and as the person wearing it gets hotter, the dot begins to convert to bright yellow.

The material from which the Hot Dot is made is actually yellow. On top of that material is sprayed a special type of black ink. When the wearer’s body core becomes overheated,
the ink on the dot "stands up" revealing the bright yellow. As the wearer’s body cools back down, the dot returns to black.

A single Hot Dot is meant to be placed on the wearer on such locations as the inside of the
elbow or on the neck. It has a similar adhesive to a band-aid and will last for one working day.

The Hot Dot was used on workers cleaning up the Gulf Oil Spill this past year. The workers started their project using military protocols of 30 minutes working and 30 minutes cooling off. The next day they used the Hot Dot and started cool down periods based on the color of the dot, returning to work when the dot was black again.

Using military protocols, the cleanup team still had 12 recordable incidents for heat related
illnesses. With the Hot Dot, the team had more frequent cool down periods, but those cool down periods were also shorter since the cooling was monitored by the dot. In addition, there were zero heat related illnesses using the Hot Dot.

The cost of the Hot Dot is about $1 per dot. The company sells in bulk for a discounted rate. If you’d like to learn more about how you can purchase the Hot Dot for your organization, call (859) 258-2690 or visit their website at www.ionxalert.com.

If your organization decides to try the Hot Dot, send ECS a note telling us how it worked for your organization!

Special thanks to Chris Cruise of Orica Inc. for sharing this terrific technology.

We take requests!

Please submit your topic requests for the next regulatory update to: Jennifer@ecshelp.com