In This Issue:
- Summer Safety: A Hot Topic for You and Your Employees
- Heat Illness in the Workplace: How You Can Control the Risk
- Cal/OSHA’s Legal Requirements for Heat Illness Prevention
- Recognizing and Treating Heat Illness Symptoms
- Watch the Temperature—and Heat Index
- Block That Sun: How to Help Employees Save Their Skin
- It’s Your Duty to Protect Young Workers
- Safety Matters Away From Work, Too
- Summer Learning: More In-Season Information for You
- Numbers to Note

Summer Safety: A Hot Topic for You and Your Employees

Summer. Just the word can summon the sights and sounds of a warm and sunny California day. Summer is the peak time for outdoor activities, including outdoor work. More employees are on the job outside, renovating houses, harvesting crops, paving roads, and more. With the rising temperatures come greater exposures to outdoor occupational hazards. That’s why employers like you need to be prepared for summer conditions that may threaten your employees’ health, especially the risk of working in high heat. Whether they result from heat waves, unprotected skin, or inexperienced young employees, summer-related work injuries and illnesses can be disruptive to your business’s productivity and your employees’ lives. These injuries may also lead to workers’ compensation claims that may increase business costs, including your future insurance premiums.

It Pays to Be Summer-Ready

As we approach the summer months, it’s a good time to redouble your efforts to prevent injuries and illnesses in your workplace. You can start by asking yourself a few quick questions:

1. Do I know all the seasonal safety risks associated with my workplace and my responsibilities for protecting employees?
2. Do I need to develop or update company procedures for training and protecting employees against summer safety hazards?
3. Am I in complete compliance with applicable laws, including Cal/OSHA’s benchmarks for heat illness prevention and young worker protection?

This issue of COMPonents is dedicated to giving you some resources to help answer these questions and manage summer safety issues. We’re bringing you detailed information on several important topics, including:

• Heat illness prevention: Understanding best practices, regulations, symptoms and treatment, and weather indicators.
• Other summer-related issues: Sun protection, young worker safety, and staying safe at home and play.
• Resources for more information: State Fund’s Employee Education Series, plus a few helpful Web sites.

A safe summer is a good summer. We hope you enjoy yours.

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Heat Illness in the Workplace: How You Can Control the Risk

When temperatures soar, employees face a greater risk of experiencing heat illness. This summer, you can have a healthier, more productive workplace by developing plans for training and protecting your employees. Here’s a list of tips and best practices to point you in the right direction.

Information and training. Knowledge is power. Your training should educate supervisors and employees about the risk factors and symptoms of heat illness as well as preventative measures (such as the ones that follow below). You should consider holding weekly or daily preshift heat safety sessions all summer long.

Documentation. Put your heat illness prevention procedures in writing. In specifying your safety measures, your plan should say who is responsible for overseeing such areas as training, water and shade provisions, weather monitoring, and emergency response.

Water and hydration. Water is a key line of defense against heat illness. You should supply employees with clean, cool, potable drinking water and remind them to stay hydrated. When working in the heat, they should drink 4 eight-ounce glasses of water (one quart) per hour. Increase the frequency of water breaks during a heat wave.

Shade and rest breaks. Shade can relieve the effects of working in direct sunlight. You should make available shaded areas for rest breaks and provide enough shade to accommodate your employees. Buildings, trees, and portable canopies can function as shade if they block sunlight and are open to air movement.

Clothing. Loose fitting, light-colored clothing is best for keeping cool. Wide-brimmed hats can also help.

Acclimatization. Employees need time to get used to working in the heat. This acclimatization can take anywhere from one to two weeks, during which time you may reduce the intensity of work or adjust schedules to work around the heat.

Workload flexibility. When possible, schedule intensive work for cooler hours and postpone nonessential heavier jobs for cooler days.

Buddy system. You can assign pairs of employees to monitor each other for heat illness symptoms. For new employees, having a buddy may ensure they follow procedures for heat illness prevention.

Emergency preparedness. Medical emergencies do happen, and you need to plan for them. Knowing how and where to get medical attention is a vital concern for outdoor employees, especially those who work in remote locations or do not speak English. Your emergency plan should include details for giving clear directions to your jobsites.

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Cal/OSHA’s Legal Requirements for Heat Illness Prevention

Cal/OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention Standard sets specific mandates for what employers must do to protect their employees’ health. The four requirements apply to all outdoor places of employment. You should look at them as minimum provisions that form the foundation of a comprehensive plan for preventing heat illness.

1. Training: Conduct heat illness prevention training for all employees and supervisors.
2. Water: Provide reliable, accessible fresh water so that employees can drink at least one quart per hour, and encourage them to do so.
3. Shade: Provide access to shade for at least a five-minute break for when employees feel they need a rest from the heat. They should not wait until they feel sick to do so.
4. Planning: Develop and implement written procedures for compliance with the Heat Illness Prevention Standard.

For more information on these four requirements, including a customizable guide titled Employer Sample Procedures for Heat Illness Prevention, go to Cal/OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention page.

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Recognizing and Treating Heat Illness Symptoms

When it’s hot and we’re active, our bodies heat up. Normally the body regulates its temperature through sweat and increased blood flow to the skin. But when conditions overwhelm these natural cooling defenses, we develop symptoms of heat illness.

For employees working actively in summer heat (outdoors or indoors), heat illness is an ever-present risk. As an employer, you need to learn—and train employees to know—the triggers and warning signs of heat illness. Supervisors and employees should never discount any signs or symptoms they are experiencing and always report symptoms immediately, even if they are unsure. As a start, you can check this summary of the types of heat illness:

Mild: Heat Cramps

Symptoms: Heavy perspiration; small red bumps on the skin and a prickling sensation called “prickly heat;” post-activity muscle cramps; mild dizziness or weakness.
Treatment: Rest in the cool shade; drink water; monitor condition.

Moderate: Heat Exhaustion

Symptoms: Heavy perspiration; cold, moist, pale or flushed skin; thirst; extreme weakness or fatigue; headache; nausea; lack of appetite; rapid weak pulse; giddiness.
Treatment: Employees suffering these symptoms should be treated immediately and may require medical attention. Recommended treatments may include resting in the cool shade; drinking water; applying cool compresses to the head, neck, and armpits; and using fans to blow air. If symptoms continue, call a doctor.

Severe: Heat Stroke

Symptoms: Lack of sweating; hot, dry flushed skin; red, mottled, or bluish skin; deep rapid breathing; delirium; fainting or loss of consciousness; convulsions.
Treatment: These symptoms represent a serious emergency and can be fatal without immediate medical treatment. Call for emergency medical assistance. In the meantime, recommended treatments may include moving the victim to rest in the cool shade and cooling the body rapidly using whatever method is available. Do not give the victim fluids to drink.

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Watch the Temperature—and Heat Index

You don’t need a meteorologist to know that it’s hot outside. But a little weather awareness can go a long way toward helping you plan for summer heat and protect your employees. One step you should take is to make someone in your company responsible for tracking the weather (go to the National Weather Service for forecasts).

There’s more to the weather than the actual temperature. The heat index is an important measure of the combined effect of air temperature and relative humidity, indicating how hot it really feels. For example, a temperature of 90 degrees with a relative humidity of 50 percent yield a heat index calculation of 95 degrees. At 90 percent humidity, that same air temperature has a heat index of 122 degrees - conditions that portend a serious risk of heat illness.

The heat index is based on temperatures taken in the shade, so hot days pose an even higher threat for employees who work in direct sunlight.

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Block That Sun: How to Help Employees Save Their Skin

Everyone likes a clear summer day, but it’s in your interest to protect your employees from the sun. When employees spend time in the sun, the cumulative exposure can be a serious hazard to their health. And if unprotected employees develop skin cancer and can prove it is the result of required outdoor work, it may trigger costly long-term workers’ compensation claims.

Here are some useful things to know about summer sun safety:

• Cast a shadow. The sun’s rays are strongest when your shadow is shorter than you, but unprotected skin can get burned even on cloudy or hazy days.
• Wear sunscreen. Employees should apply one ounce of sunscreen to exposed skin 15 to 30 minutes before they’ll be outside, and at least every two hours during the day (more frequently if sweating profusely).
• SPF FYI. A sunscreen’s sun protection factor (SPF) indicates its ability to screen out the sun’s damaging UVB rays, with the numeric rating corresponding to levels of UVB absorption. For example, SPF 2 indicates 50% absorption of UVB rays, while SPF 15 and 30 correspond with 95% and 97% absorption, respectively. A rating of SPF 15 or higher is recommended for prolonged outdoor exposure.
• Cover up. Where feasible, employees can block the sun by wearing long sleeves and pants (lightweight, loose-fitting, light-colored clothing is best). A wide-brimmed hat and neck bandana provide essential coverage. And sunglasses that block UV rays are a must for eye protection.

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It’s Your Duty to Protect Young Workers

With more young employees joining the seasonal workforce, employers have to watch out for elevated risks of accidents and injuries. Many young employees lack experience and an appreciation of their own limitations. It’s up to you to help keep them safe. Some tips:

• Be sure your employees have close supervision and detailed instructions on how to do their jobs. Have them inform a supervisor when they are performing a task for the first time.
• Train them to put safety first and to understand, recognize, and report workplace hazards. If there is equipment they shouldn’t be using, make sure warning signs are clearly posted.

The California Resource Network for Young Workers’ Health and Safety created a valuable list for employers, Six Steps to Safer Teen Jobs. The six steps are: (1) Know the laws; (2) Check your compliance; (3) Make sure teens have work permits; (4) Stress safety to frontline supervisors; (5) Set up a safety and health program; (6) Train teens to put safety first. You can read more about this list and other useful young-worker safety information at the resource network’s youngworkers.org site.

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Safety Matters Away From Work, Too

Summer is on the way, and with it will come warm-weather outdoor activities and vacations. But for all the fun in the sun, summer brings an unwanted guest to our homes: a higher risk of injuries. Statistics show that Americans are actually safer at work than at home, because of the prevalence of accidents that happen in our leisure time.

The opportunities for seasonal injuries are everywhere: Pools and beaches, playgrounds and sports fields, barbecues and campfires, boats and lawn mowers. The combination of hot weather and overexertion also makes heat illness a risk for summer leisure activities.

Each June, the National Safety Council sponsors National Safety Month to raise safety awareness. This year National Safety Month is focusing on the following issues: prescription drug overdose prevention, teen driving safety, overexertion, the dangers of distracted driving, and summer safety. For more information, including how your business can get involved, go to www.nsc.org.

As an employer, you can make a difference by not only instituting safety practices in your workplace but also stressing the value of safety in your employees’ time away from work. By being a good safety ambassador, you can help everyone enjoy a better summer at work and at home.

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Summer Learning: More In-Season Information for You

This issue of COMPonents is full of information that can help you and your employees have a safer summer. Here are some more related resources you may be interested in checking out:

• Heat Illness Prevention seminars. As part of our Employer Education Series, State Fund is hosting heat illness prevention seminars across California. The free seminars provide guidelines on how employers can control heat-related risks and keep employees healthy and safe. You’ll learn valuable details such as implementing best practices, identifying and responding to symptoms, and complying with regulations. For a schedule of seminars and free online registration, go to the seminars page.
• State Fund Web site. In addition to seminar details, you can check our Web site for summer safety information, including details and updates on topics discussed in this newsletter. Go to the Safety Resource Center.
• Cal/OSHA Online. Cal/OSHA’s heat illness information page includes downloadable publications such as a pocket pamphlet, targeted materials for areas such as agriculture and indoor operations, and links to other helpful Web sites.
• National Safety Council. This organization raises awareness of everyday safety practices. It is sponsoring National Safety Month in June.

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Numbers to Note

• State Fund 24-Hour Claims Reporting Center. If an employee experiences a work-related injury or illness, please call (888) 222-3211 to report a claim. The sooner you report the claim, the sooner we can advise you and your injured employee on proper courses of action, including arranging medical treatment.
• State Fund Customer Service Center. If you have questions about your State Fund policy or workers’ compensation insurance, give us a call at (877) 405-4545.

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