Hydration for the industrial work force. Are you hydrated? Are you sure? Hear what hydration expert, Bubba Wolford has to say about the industrial work force and how dehydration is a serious safety hazard.
Jamie: Our guest for today is Bubba Wolford from the Sqwincher Corporation. Bubba, why don't you tell the audience a little bit about yourself?
Bubba: Thanks, Jamie. I'm Bubba Wolford, as he said, with Sqwincher, I'm Director of Business Development for North America service in the industrial market.
Jamie: How about a little bit about your background as well? You've had quite an extensive background in the health and wellness universe, so to speak, and elaborate a little bit on that.
Bubba: Absolutely. I was a collegiate athlete at Louisiana Tech University. And from there, I went to Mississippi State University, was a graduate of assistant strength coach, and then was in the fitness industry for a while. From there, I ended up at Sqwincher, and we have developed a Hydration Safety 365 program, and which we're going to talk about today.
Jamie: Thanks. So, Sqwincher — not a household name. Why don't you tell the audience a little bit about what Sqwinche
r is and why it matters?
Bubba: Absolutely. Sqwincher is not a household name. You won’t find Sqwincher at the grocery store or convenience stores across the country because we focused on the industrial market. So, the good women and men of the country that work in all of the mini factories that make up our industrial sector in the US have a need to be hydrated, and we figured that out soon after our existence in 1975. We are the second oldest manufacturer of electrolytes in the US next in Gatorade, and so our market is different from retail. Meaning that we go through safety distribution and cater to the plants in the industrial sector to hydrate the workforce.
Jamie: Hydration, big, big topic. So, most of these plants have water, water stations, water bottles, break rooms. Isn't water enough?
Bubba: Water is not enough. You don't have a hydration program without water. The body's made up of 60-65% water, and that water has to be replaced constantly. So, our program addresses water first, and then we look at after the body is sweating, under the conditions that they're working in, they are losing minerals which are electrolytes, and they have to be replaced. So that's where we come in to make sure that that's being done in a timely fashion to keep the workers protected and in accident-free from dehydrated related accidents.
(Learn more in Dizziness, Disorientation, Loss of Consciousness – The Dangers of On-the-Job Dehydration.)