Posted on 10/10/2023 7:03:22 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
August 2016 was, at the time, the planet’s hottest month on record. In Freehold, New Jersey, where Jim Klenk was driving his usual route for UPS, midday temperatures were hitting highs in the 80s and 90s.
During one of those punishing late-summer days, Klenk, who was 58, started feeling sick. He was disoriented, his wife, Theresa Klenk, recalled. He hadn’t been able to urinate all day.
Like most of America’s more than 1.5 million parcel delivery drivers, Jim drove a vehicle that lacked air conditioning. On a typical shift, he would be in and out of his truck every few minutes, spending the bulk of his time in the back cargo area, where temperatures can exceed 120 degrees, according to the Teamsters union, which represents UPS drivers.
Theresa, a nurse, said Jim didn’t want an ambulance or a trip to the ER.
Eventually, though, she managed to get him to the hospital where she worked. He was already in kidney failure by the time they arrived.
“They pulled me out and asked me what Jim’s last wishes would be,” she said.
Heatstroke, one of the most common and most deadly heat-related illnesses, had put Jim in acute renal failure, Theresa said. But he got lucky, and he was able to go home after five days in the hospital.
For Theresa, Jim’s close call was a turning point. At the time, she said, no UPS drivers wanted to speak up about the increasingly brutal conditions for fear of being reprimanded. She felt uniquely positioned to begin advocating for change.
(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...
“Being a UPS driver is hard work.”
Not really when compared to other professions like home construction or road work. I had to take a gig in the garbage business for 7 years. When I started I was 52 years old. The company was still hand loading old school trashcans. They didn’t have any automated trucks yet.
One truck with one driver on the routes. We drove to an address, jumped out of the truck, dumped 3 HEAVY cans, climbed back into the truck and drove to the next house to repeat the cycle. Every route was an average of 400 homes a day.
And this was in the desert southwest with no air-conditioning in 116 degree heat during the summer. Air conditioning was detrimental because the quick back and forth cool-hot temp changes would kill you.
The only way I could stay hydrated was to drink at least two gallons of water a day.
Ha! My nephews wife has driven for UPS, 40 years in the Mojave She took the Barstow Ft Irwin route about twenty years ago still driving it!
only six month? you must not live here.
“I worked on a roof for 44 years I learned how to drink Gatorade and water everyday.”
I hot mopped in the desert southwest for awhile. That was the hottest work I have ever done!
He was already in kidney failure by the time they arrived.
I worked in a forging plant and it wouldn’t stop work until the the temperature reached 120 degrees we drank a lot of water and they had salt tables to prevent the body from losing minerals.
He didn’t die just because of heat.
Agree it wasn’t just heat that got him just water can flush the system it’s why you see so many construction sites with mineral water or soft drinks with it in it.
Since the incident was in New Jersey, air pollution was likely the largest contributing factor, not temperature.
**He’s too old to be doing that kind of work anyway**
Hydration!! And no soda pop or sugar bomb teas!! And controlling the waistline!
I’m 69, and was digging potatoes at midday for my 84 and 90 year old neighbors last August. Drank a LOT of water.
As a full time truck driver from age 47 thru 66, I found out early in that profession that I needed to maintain the lean limber physique. It was easy to do that as a grain and livestock farmer, and at the steel fabrication jobs. But trucking was not as physical. Just briefly each day: such as wrestling a tarp over open flatbed cargo was demanding; especially on hot days (those black tarps get real hot), or climbing in an asphalt dump trailer at days end, that just unloaded asphalt (that was a steam bath, the walls and floor being 200° plus. There was always a few shovel fulls to scrape out before it hardened).
Therefore, before showering at days end, I would do (and still do) some exercises, and run sprints or ride bike (I hate jogging and I ride bike at a fast pace to get it over with quickly. I’m not interested in taking more than an hour to do the routine. And I only do it 3 or 4 times a week).
Conditioning and diet; and plenty of water on hot days.
People have health issues that they didn’t ask for or deserve. I get that. But the majority of the health problems are from bad decisions.
The summer I turned 11 I, after seeing an old Tarzan episode, where he jumped from a branch to grab another one, missed, and tumbled down through the old maple and smacked the ground, breaking my left femur. After traction and crutches I was almost good as new, except for an occasional backache. It would be another 35 years before that L4-L5 disc would finally degenerate to where I needed surgery.
That has been a key motivator for keeping the weight off all these years.
Well, to be accurate, he didn’t die at all, this time.
I ran outside crews for 20 years in the FL heat. IMO - that's about as hard as it gets. As others have said though - UPS drivers don't get to work at their own pace. They don't go home until their packages are delivered. You dick around, you go home late - and not on the clock or overtime. On you. It's a very tough job here in FL. I imagine it isn't a picnic in Thief River Falls in the winter either.
My great grandfather died of heatstroke in 1916, as did many other people in the Midwest.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2006-07-30-0607300061-story.html
He was already in kidney failure by the time they arrived.
About a close as it gets bet he keeps some mineral tablets with him next time.
Just water can strip them out of you salt became like gold years ago.
Try working on a farm down in Texas. My wife and I are both 70’ish and we still do it. 90 is a cool day. It must have to do with being acclimated to the heat. I have a friend in Palmer, Alaska, who can’t stand it here once the temperature gets over 85.
If this guy was driving a UPS truck, he at least had a breeze going and/or one of those little fans I see in those trucks. Stay hydrated.
“UPS drivers don’t get to work at their own pace.”
Did you happen to read the rest of my post? 400 addresses, three heavy trash cans per stop, and they all had to be done in a twelve hour shift because as commercial drivers we were still regulated by hours of service laws.
We I started that job I couldn’t even drive the 30 miles home after work for the first two weeks. Had to grab something from the C-store across the street for sustenance and die in my car for the night.
Well, I don’t want to argue. There are a lot of hard jobs. I know hard jobs - I’ve done them and supervised them. All I said was that being a UPS driver is generally a hard job imo.
That’s all.
But it’s a dry heat.
“I worked in a forging plant and it wouldn’t stop work until the the temperature reached 120 degrees we drank a lot of water and they had salt tables to prevent the body from losing minerals.”
Your mention of salt is a huge point. One of the problems is the health industry telling everyone salt is bad for them and to not intake any. Maybe for a couch potato, but not for those who work physically in hot environments. I think this reality may have contributed to this guys demise. A one size fit’s all rule from a doctor doesn’t always fit all. Sometimes you have to be smarter about your own personal situation than the doctor is.
“Well, I don’t want to argue. There are a lot of hard jobs.”
My point was not really about how hard the jobs was. My point was that I had to drink two gallons of water a day to live through doing my job.
What happened to this guy was not the job because there are many more even much harder, it was because he didn’t drink at least a gallon of water a day while doing the job.
Hydration when you work hard was the main point of my post. Mine required two gallons a day to stay on top of hydration.
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