Page 36 - OHS, March 2022

SUMMER HAZARDS
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your teams about heat illness in general. ThThat means knowing the signs, symptoms, risks, and emergency actions to take. It should also include day-to-day or even hour-to-hour communications about working temperatures on the jobsite and the associated risk factors. This may involve designating workers or supervisors to monitor your teams’ well-being during their shift or at least creating a buddy system where workers keep an eye on each other to look for signs of heat stress.
Hydration. Everyone knows it’s
important to provide water. But it’s crucial for this step to include a policy of providing icy-cold water and/or electrolyte replacing beverages that are in close proximity to every worker. Workers won’t drink enough if the water is warm and they tend to put off rehydration if they have to walk too far to get it.
Heat Acclimatization. OSHA estimates that over seventy percent of heat-related deaths happen in a worker’s first week on the job and almost 50 percent on the very first day. The culprit here is
lack of heat acclimatization. When your jobsite or facility are hot, new workers or workers returning from an extended absence should gradually increase
exposure to the work conditions, ideally over a five to seven-day time period. So they might work just an hour or two in the heat on day one, a little longer on day two, etc. This allows their bodies to develop defenses against the heat like increased sweating and a lower heart rate.
Body Cooling Stations. Proof that some of the old ways still work, body cooling stations are always a good idea on a hot jobsite. Designating areas like air-conditioned portable bathroom trailers, cooling tents, shaded areas, or air-conditioned lunchrooms—really anywhere with a cooler temperature and a place for workers to rest and cool down, are an important part of keeping people safe. Coolers full of ice and towels are a smart addition as they allow workers to spend some time immersing themselves in lower temperatures while they get off their feet and recover.
Cooling PPE. Rest breaks, hydration and shade are important mitigation factors in the heat, but if conditions are hot enough, these won’t be enough to keep workers from overheating. You can help the situation by choosing the lightest PPE available that still provides protection, but you can also add garments that are specially designed to lower the skin temperature. New technologies in cooling garments have been developed in the last few years that don’t rely on slimy-feeling chemicals or ice packs.
These steps above are simple and economical. Given the enormous costs of failing to follow them, neglecting your heat safety plan just doesn’t make sense. Save your time, save your money and save your workers by implementing these steps and developing a quality heat safety plan!
M.B. Sutherland is the Sr. Safety Writer at Magid.
REFERENCES
1. https://www.magidglove.com/safety- matters/safety-culture/heat-safety-webinar
2. https://heatsafetycoalition.com/
3. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
doi/10.1029/2021GH000443
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Occupational Health & Safety | MARCH 2022
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