According to an article, the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration (OSHA) is looking to add regulations for outdoor and indoor workers to prevent heat illness.
Summer in Texas is hot, very hot.
How hot? Cooking an egg on the ground hot:
On the first 100 degrees day of the year, six workers from Austin experienced heat-related illnesses.
Safe to say, a new set of prevention rules from OSHA would be welcomed to keep workers safe. Still, each organization whose workers consistently perform their jobs in high temperatures must have a plan.
According to JJ Keller, a business should take the following factors into account when constructing their heat illness prevention plan:
Evaluate the risks: for the heat index, an organization must factor in both temperature AND humidity
- Indoor work: simply looking at weather reports does not help evaluate indoor conditions.
- Direct sunlight: while temperature/heat index can be assessed in shade, workers who work in direct sun are at a much higher risk of a heat-related illness.
- Reflective material: assess which protective and other materials cause sunlight to reflect onto workers.
- Heat sources: evaluate which sources heat can come from (fires, hot tar, ovens, heat-absorbing surfaces).
- Wind: while the wind does help cool off, buildings and other surroundings may block airflow.
For your organization’s plan:
- Identify which trainings workers and supervisors need.
- Evaluate a realistic timeframe for when new workers develop heat tolerance.
- Pick who will provide daily oversight.
- Pinpoint a plan for contacting medical attention.
- Identify which engineering control and practices reduce stress from heat.
For more information, view the original article from JJ Keller.
Photo by Arron Choi on Unsplash
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