Keep Kuul with Portacool: Heat Stress Comes Full Circle

Keeping employees safe, cool, and productive is essential in any work environment. The role heat stress plays was the topic of this episode of Keep Kuul with Portacool. Tyler Kern reached out to Klint Barton, Regional Manager for Automotive, Southeast Division at Portacool for his perspective.

Barton understands the seriousness of heat stress because he has hyperhidrosis, which causes excessive sweating even without additional exposure to heat or exercise. “It was very hard, at times, to keep myself cool on hot days,” Barton said. “Where I’m at in Alabama, we deal with that issue quite regularly, during the summer especially.”

Hyperhidrosis became a real issue for Barton when playing sports. “My body couldn’t cool itself,” Barton explained. When the heat stress kicked in, Barton experienced dizziness to the point of blackouts. And Barton’s issues continued in his work life, as he recalled his time working in a machine shop and experiencing heat stress. In one incident in the shop, while operating a saw in extreme heat conditions, Barton collapsed and split his chin open. He considers himself lucky that nothing worse occurred.

This incident served as Barton’s introduction to Portacool because his boss purchased a unit afterward to keep his employee cool. “It saved my work,” Barton said. “I could do my job. I could do it well. I could go to work and not have to worry if it would happen to me again.”

Not every employee will have a condition like Barton’s. Still, heat stress in work environments where temperatures are warmer than average, and it is challenging to provide traditional AC cooling is a concern that portable cooling solutions address.

Barton experienced the difference such solutions can make in his previous work experiences, and now he loves that he gets to provide those exact solutions to others.