OSHA’s Message and Recommendations to Employers Regarding Heat

Employers nationwide should take note of the new messages and warnings from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration regarding heat stress and related illnesses.

“Water. Rest. Shade.”

These practices can be the difference between ending the workday safely or having to take care of serious, life-threatening injuries.

Employers are encouraged to complete the following actions to prevent the effects of heat-related injuries and illnesses on their worksites:

• Encourage workers to drink water every 15 minutes
• Take frequent rest breaks in the shade to cool down
• Have an emergency plan ready to respond when a worker shows signs of heat-related illness
• Train workers on the hazards of heat exposure and how to prevent illness
• Allow workers to build a tolerance for working in the heat

The effects of heat-related illness vary on an individual basis.

Heat dissipation, the body's natural ability to shed excess heat through sweat, is what’s needed to maintain a healthy internal body temperature.

However, if heat dissipation does not occur quickly enough, often the result of dehydration and inadequate acclimatization, the body's internal temperature will continue to rise to dangerous levels without intervention.

Types of Heat-Related Illnesses: Exertional vs. Environmental

Exertional heat illness is the kind that comes from exertion, being the metabolic heat that’s generated by heavy muscle use and activity in the body. Since this type of illness depends on the individual's metabolism and acclimation to high temperatures, it is the most dangerous, as it varies from person to person.

If the individual has a slow metabolism or a pre-existing condition that makes them susceptible to heat, they are at higher risk of heat-related illness. 

This type of heat illness even depends on body mass index, and people with higher BMI or other genetic conditions that make the body more vulnerable to heat are also at increased risk for heat-related illness.

The other type of heat-related illness is environmental. 

This type of illness results from ambient conditions of high heat and high relative humidity. This type of heat illness can occur anywhere, as it involves heat waves, urban heat islands, and even hot motor vehicles. 

This is the easiest heat-related illness to avoid, as paying attention to weather alerts and using proper cooling systems can reduce the risk. 

Both illnesses combined are dangerous, but when solutions to each are considered and united, it is easier to cool workers down more rapidly. A way to combine both is to ensure proper cooling methods, including shade and air conditioning, as well as proper hydration and heat acclimation. 

When combined, the prevention of heat-related illnesses in the workplace is diminished.

How to Combat Heat Stress Illness

A way for employers to prevent heat-related illness is by having an active managerial commitment to providing the most effective controls and strategies. 

OSHA recommends several practices for safety and health programs, including engineering controls, workload and schedule changes, and proper training to recognize the symptoms of heat-related illness and administer first aid.

OSHA recommended changes to workload and schedules that empower all workers to slow down physical activity. 

This can be done by reducing manual handling speeds, scheduling work for the morning when the heat index is at its lowest, taking shorter shifts with frequent rest breaks away from the heat, staying properly hydrated, and receiving proper training.

Proper training is the most vital of these recommended practices, as collaborative efforts are key to preventing heat-related illnesses. Knowing the symptoms and moving quickly to reduce its effects is the difference between making it home from a shift and a potentially fatal outcome at the job site. 

Proper first aid for heat-related illness is to cool the affected worker. Cooling techniques such as ice or cold towels on areas that produce the highest amount of sweat, being the head, neck, trunk, armpits, and groin, and immersing the worker in cold water or an ice bath are the best techniques. 

Combining these techniques with cool air and staying with them until the symptoms subside are proper first-aid principles. 

The best principle for management to reduce heat-related illness is accurate measurement of heat. 

In addition to a thermometer, OSHA recommends using an on-site wet-bulb globe temperature to measure the impact of environmental heat on body temperature. Sonicu also offers heat stress monitoring that is more precise, cloud-based, and has mobile alerts via text and phone calls to alert managers when heat stress levels are dangerous. 

OSHA provides the WBGT meter as an example, as it incorporates temperature, humidity, sunlight, and air movement into a single measurement. 

OSHA also recommends using heat calculator apps, such as the NIOSH/OSHA Heat App, available on iOS and Android. 

These apps are simple-to-use calculators that provide only the heat index for the user’s specific location and guidance on workload and occupational safety and health recommendations for hot conditions. 

In the words of OSHA, “Employers must protect workers from the dangers of heat illness in hot indoor and outdoor environments,” William Donovan, OSHA’s Chicago regional administrator, said in an agency statement (Burdick et al.).

What Employers Can Do

Employers can heed these words by investing in better monitoring platforms, such as Sonicu’s software dashboard. 

Dashboards contain a customizable view of the monitoring points in your facility. The dashboard provides a visual indicator of real-time conditions in your facility through color coding. Individual points can show custom time frames and be downloaded into various graph formats. 

All dashboard information includes links to calibration certificates that meet OSHA monitoring standards.

One of the most powerful features of the Sonicu dashboard is the ability to create and customize SoniCloud Reports.

Reports on the platform are designed to easily track point data, alarms, and temperature thresholds. Reports can be pulled at any time, and data logs are designed to help Sonicu clients achieve regulatory compliance.

The most essential report for achieving proper OSHA-recommended practices to prevent heat stress is the Threshold Achievement Report. 

This report allows clients to view threshold compliance for each monitoring point and quickly pinpoint specific equipment that does not maintain the desired threshold. 

This information can save lives, as it easily identifies areas that need improvement without OSHA officers having to cite you for violations or critique the same thing. 

Further information and a tutorial on SoniCloud reports are linked here. 

Take the first step towards protecting your business and employers by scheduling a demo with Sonicu here today!

Sources: 

“Alarms and Notifications.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Mar. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ck9TceccuM.

Coffman, Jackie, et al. “OSHA Issues ANPRM on Heat Injury and Illness Prevention.” JD Supra, www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/osha-issues-anprm-on-heat-injury-and-8154517/.

Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings Rulemaking | Occupational Safety and Health Administration, www.osha.gov/heat-exposure/rulemaking.

Tenn, Ashlee. “Cooling Solutions Feature: OSHA, Heat Exposure, and Worker Safety.” Facility Executive, 27 June 2022, https://facilityexecutive.com/2022/06/cooling-solutions-feature-osha-heat-exposure-worker-safety/