EGA extends use of wearable technology to ‘Beat the Heat’

EGA extends use of wearable technology to ‘Beat the Heat’

Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the UAE outside oil and gas, has expanded the use of Kenzen, a wearable technology platform, to 350 employee volunteers to ‘Beat the Heat’ this summer.

Heat-related illness is a hazard for anyone working outside in the UAE summer, and can be fatal if left untreated. It is, however, preventable. EGA has focused for more than a decade on eliminating heat-related illness every summer.

Kenzen’s wearable technology offers the potential to further protect outdoor workers in the UAE, by continuously reporting core body temperature, heart rate, activity and other body indicators in real time allowing both the wearer and EGA’s safety team to detect heat strain in the body before the early signs can be felt. EGA used wearable devices for the first time in a trial of 50 volunteers last summer.

Zero heat-related illnesses

Despite industrial processes that generate further heat, and which must run and be tended around the clock, EGA achieved zero heat-related illnesses in 2019 and 2022. In 2021, EGA recorded two cases of heat-related illness requiring treatment at the company’s on-site medical centres. In both cases, the employees received rehydration via intravenous drips and fully recovered within hours.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief