With summer fast approaching, you need to put your employees on high alert for heat-related injuries, especially if they work at construction, refining, asbestos removal, hazardous waste and other outdoor sites or indoor sites with high temperatures. In addition to injuries, excessive heat can lead to OSHA citations and other liability. Here's a look at how to manage these risks. (There's also a Heat Stress Awareness Briefing for employees in Tools that you can access if you're a SafetyXChange member.)

Heat Stress and the Law

OSHA doesn't have a specific standard on heat stress hazards. But it has cited employers for exposing employees to excessively hot work environments under the General Duty Clause (section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act) which requires employers to keep the workplace free of recognized hazards that cause or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm. A hazard is considered "recognized" if the employer actually recognizes the hazard or the hazard is generally recognized by the employer's industry. Quite frankly, it would be difficult to argue that excessive heat is not a recognized hazard.

One example of a case in which an employer was cited for a heat hazard under the General Duty Clause is Duriron Co. v. Secretary of Labor , 750 F.2d 28 (6 th Cir. 1984). The court in that case found that the efforts the employer had made to reduce heat stress were evidence that it actually "recognized" the hazard.

5 Guidelines

One lesson of the Duriron case is that the precautions you take to guard employees against heat hazards must be adequate. Half-hearted measures are the worst of both worlds: They show you recognized the danger but they don't do enough to prevent it.

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when implementing heat-stress prevention measures at your workplace:

1. Cut Employees Some Slack When Working in High Temperatures

Make sure that supervisors and employees understand that drinking water in hot temperatures is not "slacking off." Employees should be allowed to drink as much as they want as often as they want. You should also let new employees or employees returning to work after an extended absence (3 days or more) get acclimated to the high temperatures in the workplace before driving them to maximum physical exertion.

2. Provide Drinkable Water

Keep in mind that OSHA requires employers to provide potable (drinkable and cold) water in certain workplaces (see, for example, 29 CFR 1910.141(b) and 1926.65(n)).

3. Implement Engineering Controls

Make sure work areas are adequately ventilated. Consider the physical conditions in the workplace, such as ambient air temperature, radiant heat, air movement, high humidity, etc. In order to adequately measure the heat-related conditions in the workplace, you should be familiar with the various sampling methods (e.g. body temperature measurements, environmental measurements, wet bulb globe temperature index (WBGT), and portable heat stress monitors).

4. Consider Physiological Factors

Take into account all of the factors that can cause heat stress on the human body, such as an employee's age, weight, physical fitness, medical conditions and any past heat-related injuries. This will help you identify which employees are most susceptible.

5. Educate Employees

Train employees how to identify the symptoms of heat stress both in themselves and others. Describe the different forms of heat illness, such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, heat collapse, heat rashes and heat fatigue, and the appropriate first aid measures to provide in response to each. (You can use or adapt the employee briefing about heat stress in Tools as part of your effort.)

Conclusion

I recommend that employers with "hot workplaces" avail themselves of the many publications about managing the hazards of heat stress in the workplace. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and National Safety Council (NSC) are great sources for guidance. Stay Safe!

The Canadian Perspective

This article and the guidelines it recommends are 100 percent relevant to Canadian employers.

Some provinces, including British Columbia, have OHS regulations requiring specific measures to guard employees against extreme heat. All provinces also have a General Duty Clause similar to the one in the OSHA law that Jim discusses in his article.

And, just as in the U.S., Canadian employers have been fined for not protecting employees against heat-related injuries. For example, an Ontario bakery was fined $215,000 after an employee died of heat stroke. The temperature in the bakery was 36 degrees Celsius, and the outside temperature 34. The bakery had a heat stress plan but hadn't implemented at the time of the accident [Weston Bakeries Limited, Ont. MOL News Release, Feb. 18, 2004].

A New Brunswick employer was also recently convicted of failing to put a heat stress prevention plan in place. Charges were laid after an employee died of heat stress.

WHO WON?

Can an Employee Be Fired for Refusing to Shave for a Respirator Fitting?

What Happened: A company starts a mandatory respirator program that includes fit testing. An employee shows up for his fitting with a beard and goatee. He thus can't be fitted. So the company fires him. The employee claims he was fired for being Hispanic and sues for damages.

Who Won?

Answer: The company. The federal court said that an employee's refusal to comply with the terms of the respirator safety program was a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason to fire him [Galdamez v. Xerox Corp. , 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3578 (U.S. D.C., D.C.), Feb. 28, 2005].

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