Are We About to Start Testing Worker Hydration on Site?
We monitor heat. We monitor fatigue. We monitor work rates, environmental conditions and exposure risks.
But when it comes to hydration, workplaces have traditionally relied largely on prevention, education and observation.
Make sure workers have access to water. Provide electrolytes where appropriate. Encourage regular drinking. Watch for signs of heat stress and dehydration.
But how do you actually know whether an individual worker is adequately hydrated?
That question is becoming more interesting as portable hydration-testing technology gains traction in Australian workplaces, particularly in industries where heat and physical workload are part of the job.
Quick Answer
Worker hydration testing uses portable testing technologies to give workers and safety teams more objective information about hydration status before or during a shift. Some systems analyse saliva and can provide results on site within minutes or even seconds. The technology could help workplaces understand whether hydration strategies are keeping pace with heat, workload and PPE demands. Testing would sit alongside, not replace, access to fluids, electrolytes, cooling, rest and other heat-stress controls.
Why Worker Hydration Testing Is Getting More Attention
At the 2026 Queensland Mining Industry Health & Safety Conference, Australian startup Salhy exhibited its new saliva-based personal hydration test alongside The PPE Group and Body Armour. It was Salhy’s first industry conference, putting rapid hydration testing directly in front of mining safety professionals and site leaders.
Industry publication Safe to Work also reported from the conference that Body Armour has partnered with Salhy on the technology, which has been developed with the mining workforce in mind.
But Salhy isn’t the only company exploring this space.
MX3 Diagnostics has been providing saliva-based hydration testing for workplaces for a number of years, with its technology already used across mining, drilling, construction, elite sport and other physically demanding environments. Its system measures salivary osmolarity using a portable reader and disposable test strips, allowing hydration status to be measured and tracked on site. The technology has also been used with elite sporting teams including the Gold Coast Titans, showing how individual hydration data can be relevant wherever heat, exertion and performance intersect.
The appearance of newer systems such as Salhy alongside established technologies like MX3 points to a broader shift: workplace hydration is becoming something that can increasingly be measured, rather than managed only through general guidance and observation.
From Managing Hydration To Measuring It
For years, workplace hydration strategies have focused on reducing the risk of dehydration before it becomes a problem.
That still matters enormously. But there is a difference between having a hydration plan in place and knowing how effectively that plan is working for individual workers.
A worker may have access to water and electrolytes all day and still begin a shift under-hydrated. Another may lose more fluid or electrolytes than expected because of heat, workload, PPE, individual sweat rate or other factors.
That is where personal hydration testing becomes interesting. Rather than asking workers how they feel or waiting for visible signs of dehydration, these technologies aim to give workplaces objective hydration feedback during the working day.
How Do These Hydration Tests Work?
There isn’t one single approach to worker hydration testing.
MX3 Diagnostics measures salivary osmolarity, essentially the concentration of particles in saliva, using a handheld analyser and disposable test strip. Results are produced in seconds and can be recorded against individual worker profiles for ongoing monitoring.
Salhy takes a different approach. Its saliva sample is analysed using a smartphone-based system that considers multiple hydration indicators and provides a hydration snapshot in around two minutes. Salhy says its technology has undergone independent validation with researchers at the University of Newcastle and has been trialled in workplace environments including mining.
Both approaches are designed to make hydration testing portable and practical outside a laboratory, although they use different technology and methodologies.
Neither should be treated as a substitute for medical assessment or broader workplace heat-management controls.
What Could Worker Hydration Testing Tell a Workplace?
A practical hydration-testing system potentially gives safety teams another layer of information.
For example, it could help identify:
workers starting a shift below their usual hydration baseline
changes in hydration during long or physically demanding shifts
whether current fluid and electrolyte strategies appear to be keeping pace with working conditions
patterns across teams, tasks or environmental conditions
whether hydration has recovered adequately after sustained physical work
Salhy's model also allows users to establish an individual baseline and compare future test results against it, rather than treating every worker as though they have identical hydration needs.
That personalisation is potentially important.
Heat exposure may be shared across a crew, but hydration response is not necessarily identical from one person to the next.
Could This Become Part Of The Pre-Start?
It isn't difficult to imagine where this kind of technology could eventually fit.
Some workplaces already monitor environmental heat conditions, fatigue risk, fitness for work and other factors before or during a shift.
Hydration testing could potentially become another data point.
A pre-shift test might show whether a worker is beginning the day adequately hydrated. A test during a break could provide feedback on whether the hydration strategy is keeping pace with the workload.
That doesn't necessarily mean testing every worker every day. The more realistic use may be targeted testing during high-risk periods, particularly hot weather, long shifts, heavy PPE use, physically demanding tasks or known heat-stress conditions.
This is still an emerging space, but the direction is interesting: hydration management could become less reliant on assumption and more measurable.
Measurement Doesn't Replace Prevention
This is the important part. Testing hydration does not remove the need for a broader heat-stress and hydration strategy.
Workers still need access to fluids. Workplaces still need appropriate rest, shade and cooling arrangements. Environmental conditions, workload, acclimatisation, PPE and individual risk factors still need to be considered.
And electrolyte products are not a silver bullet on their own either.
THORZT's own workplace guidance positions hydration products as one part of a broader heat-stress and hydration strategy that also includes education and workplace controls.
Testing may simply give workplaces a better way to understand whether those systems are working.
Where Hydration Products Fit
If measurement becomes more sophisticated, the practical response still has to happen on site. That means having hydration products workers can actually access and use throughout the day.
Avid Edge supplies workplace hydration solutions from Body Armour, THORZT and Sqwincher including electrolyte products designed for industrial and heat-exposed environments.
Body Armour's hydration range is formulated specifically around ongoing hydration in physically demanding workplaces, including electrolyte sachets containing sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium and chloride.
THORZT also offers workplace hydration products alongside education resources, cooling products and broader heat-stress management support.
The point isn't simply to stock an electrolyte drink because summer is approaching. It's to build a system that makes hydration practical throughout the shift.
So, Will Hydration Testing Become Normal on Site?
It’s too early to say whether hydration testing will become a routine part of pre-starts or daily site management.
But the direction is worth watching.
Established systems such as MX3 already show that hydration can be measured practically in workplace environments, while newer technologies such as Salhy are making the conversation more visible across industries such as mining.
The opportunity isn’t to replace existing hydration and heat-stress controls with another test. It’s to give safety teams another piece of information about whether those controls are actually working for the people wearing the PPE and doing the work.
As portable testing becomes faster, easier and more accessible, “stay hydrated” may increasingly become something workplaces can measure rather than simply remind workers to do.
Planning For Hotter Conditions?
If you’re reviewing hydration and heat management ahead of summer, Avid Edge can help with practical solutions for construction, mining and industrial teams.
From workplace hydration and electrolyte solutions to cooling products and broader site safety systems, we can help you build hydration into the way your site operates, rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Continue Exploring
If you’re reviewing workplace hydration, heat stress or site safety, these related resources may also help:
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Hydration and Cooling Solutions for Safe, High-Performing Teams on Site
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