The temperature is forecasted to exceed 100 degrees throughout California this week, and we urge all employers to take extra steps to protect outdoor workers from heat illness. This includes providing outdoor workers fresh water, access to shade and cool-down rest breaks in addition to regular breaks.
Cal/OSHA asks that employers with outdoor workers take the following steps to prevent heat illness:
- Plan – Develop and implement an effective written heat illness prevention plan that includes emergency response procedures.
- Training – Train all employees and supervisors on heat illness prevention.
- Water – Provide drinking water that is fresh, pure, suitably cool and free of charge so that each worker can drink at least 1 quart per hour, and encourage workers to do so.
- Rest – Encourage workers to take a cool-down rest in the shade for at least five minutes when they feel the need to do so to protect themselves from overheating. Workers should not wait until they feel sick to cool down.
- Shade – Provide proper shade when temperatures exceed 80 degrees. Workers have the right to request and be provided shade to cool off at any time.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- Heat Warnings: For a list of the excessive heat warnings broken down by county, click here.
- Heat Illness Prevention Webpage: For Cal/OSHA’s heat illness prevention standard that applies to all outdoor workers, click here.
- Heat Illness Prevention Tool: For Cal/OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention eTool, which contains everything from general information on heat illness to best practices for preventing and responding to heat illness, click here.
For additional guidance on Cal/OSHA regulations, contact Jason Resnick at [email protected] or (949) 885-2253.