With summer upon us, temperatures are heating up. While some may be planning their next pool party or barbeque, employers should ensure they are taking precautions to protect their employees from heat-related illnesses.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers are responsible for providing workplaces free of known safety and health hazards, including protecting workers from heat-related hazards. According to OSHA, heat is the leading cause of death among all weather-related workplace hazards, and it seriously injured more than 70,000 workers between 1992 and 2017, and these are only the reported cases! Because of these statistics, OSHA has announced its intention to implement a rule addressing employee protection from heat-related illnesses.
Until OSHA publishes this rule, there are some actions employers can take to protect employees who may work outside or in hot, enclosed areas such as warehouses:
- Develop a written heat illness prevention plan that includes how to monitor employees for signs of heat illness, emergency response plans for an employee experiencing heat illness, what measures will be taken to prevent heat illness (such as the items below), etc. Train employees on the program and document the training.
- Train employees on the health effects of heat, the symptoms of heat illness, how and when to respond to symptoms, and how to prevent heat illness.
- Designate a person with appropriate training to be responsible for the employer's heat illness prevention program.
- Identify the temperature at which the heat illness prevention program is implemented.
- Provide cool drinking water to employees and encourage employees to drink four glasses of water per hour.
- Provide access to shade or air-conditioned areas to allow employees to rest and cool down.
- Provide an acclimatization period of two weeks for new employees working in high temperatures through gradually increasing workloads.
- Consider alternative work schedules to reduce employee exposure to heat, such as starting earlier in the day.
Be aware, some states that have state-level OSHA agencies have already implemented standards imposing specific heat-related illness prevention requirements on employers. These states include California, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, and Colorado. Employers operating in these states should familiarize themselves with the required standards.
If you have concerns about keeping your employees safe as the temperature climbs, you can book a no-cost consultation to have an OSHA consultant visit your worksite to discuss concerns and identify ways to improve safety and health in your workplace. These consultations are confidential and are separate from OSHA enforcement, so you can rest easy that the consultant is there to help your company improve safety and not fine you if you aren’t doing everything perfectly. You can book your no-cost consultation here.
You can also download a heat safety app developed by OSHA, DOL, CDC, and NIOSH here, which helps calculate the heat index, displays a risk level for outdoor workers, and sends reminders about protective measures you can take to protect workers from heat-related illnesses.
With a few precautions, employers can ensure that only a few hot dogs get burned at the company cookout this summer and not their employees.