Companies benefit by using all of the best new tools and technologies to implement worker safety initiatives. Now the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has produced a new iPhone and Android app that will help workers and employers to pay attention to heat indexes, to cultivate better heat safety management protocols.
Heat Risks in Summer
Whether workers are doing their jobs indoors or outdoors, a hot summer climate can raise risks for things like heatstroke and other heat-related injuries and accidents. In outdoor environments, there’s often no shelter from the heat and light of the sun. But even indoors, heat risks can be significant, especially when industrial or manufacturing processes generate their own heat, and facilities are not air-conditioned.
Employers have to think carefully about managing these risks, to avoid liability and create a better reputation for safety. Workers also have to look out for themselves, to minimize the chances that they will suffer from an injury or accident due to a high-pressure work environment.
What the OSHA Heat App Does
By using OSHA’s heat app, workers can calculate a heat index for a work site. This generates a risk level where users can get instructions for protective measures and how to deal with the specific temperatures in their workplaces.
In setting heat indexes, OSHA warns that working in full sunlight can mean that the actual heat value is up to fifteen degrees hotter than what is shown. The mobile application comes in Spanish and English versions for Android and iPhone devices.
The OSHA Heat Safety Campaign
The OSHA heat app is part of a greater OSHA campaign titled: “Water, Rest, Shade.” OSHA also maintains resources online and integrates heat risk management into trainings, to reinforce the idea that work injuries or health conditions can be avoided by practicing proper heat safety. Safety experts maintain that a combination of available cold drinking water, shaded areas and rest breaks can lead to much better outcomes in terms of worker health and company productivity.
Heat safety is just one of those many things that supervisors and managers need to worry about when conducting operations with specific workforces. It’s hard to keep on top of everything that business leaders have to do during the day, but putting some emphasis on workplace safety can pay big dividends as a company gets a better reputation and does not have to deal with the consequences of liability. This type of safety is especially important in situations where companies have a lot of temporary or contracted workers coming in, workers who may not know as much about their rights in the workplace or advocate for themselves as loudly, or work as closely with those who manage them.
For more about dealing with a temporary workforce or any other type of management, keep reading the Full Steam Staffing blog. We talk about the biggest issues in the business world today, as we counsel our clients on how to succeed and handle staffing and everything else they need to grow.