Heat illness is one of those seasonal risks that often goes underestimated or overlooked by employers.
In any job that involves working outdoors in hot summer months, heat illness can be a concern. This includes physically strenuous jobs, as well as others where employees may not be as active, but will still be exposed to extremely high temperatures and high humidity during the summer.
Employers need to protect workers from faulty equipment and other evident dangers, but they also need to protect them from some of the subtler types of injuries that will still impact both the worker and the business alike, causing health conditions and physical dangers for frontline workers, while also creating liability for the business.
To help handle these issues, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA has developed resources for the reduction of heat hazards at companies.
The Three-Fold Prevention System
Three common-sense types of cooling will help reduce the chances of heat illness for workers — water, rest and shade.
Having clean water on hand at a job site is one important part of the solution. Another is break time — giving workers time to both drink water and release the body from the stress of strenuous activity.
The third part of the solution is shade, which can make a tremendous difference in the heat levels that employees are exposed to. Even just shade during break times can cool the body down significantly — at the same time, standing in the sun can have its own significant effects, even without adding strenuous exercise to the equation. Shade can be as easy as tying a tarp or cover to a fixed installation to get some shade onto the site.
Tolerance and Timelines
Another fundamental aspect of heat safety is regarding situations where new workers, or those returning after an absence, have not built up tolerance to a hot climate. Here, OSHA suggests staggering or altering work schedules to accommodate this. It may be necessary to ‘ease’ individuals into a work routine, to prevent initial shock to the body from the stresses of heat and physical activity.
Responsibility to All Workers
Most companies understand the basic aspects of keeping everyone safe on the job, but some still seem a bit unresponsive, especially when it comes to fully protecting both full-time in-house employees and temporary workers.
Regardless of the worker’s actual status, companies have a responsibility to provide safe and livable conditions for work. Preventing heat illness is one of these responsibilities, one that thankfully doesn’t apply at all year-round, but only in a few months out of the year. Others, like the mitigation of fumes, particles and topical chemicals in manufacturing environments, are year-round challenges. Sometimes, seasonal hazards can be more difficult to address, simply because safety solutions don’t have to be in place all year.
Full Steam Staffing is a full-service staffing agency focused on providing clerical and light industrial staffing solutions to manufacturers, distribution centers and other organizations that need qualified, reliable workers.