OSHA Declines to Issue Rule Protecting Workers From Heat

[Omaha Steve]

http://inthesetimes.org/working/entry/13516/as_record_temperatures_hit_us_osha_declines_to_issue_rule_protecting_worker/

Wednesday Jul 11, 2012 10:28 am

By Mike Elk


OSHA has still not implemented standards that would protect construction workers and farm workers from heat-related illness and death. (Photo: Getty Images)


As high temperature records are broken across the United States, health and public safety advocates are calling on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to finally issue a rule protecting workers from extreme heat. In 1972, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended a heat standard, but OSHA has still failed to implement it. With global warming likely to make heat related deaths more common, public safety advocates say OSAH must act immediately.

“Some farm workers and construction workers work for hours on end and there are no accommodations for rest breaks. This is what commonly leads to heat deaths” says Dr. Sammy Almashat, a researcher with Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. “We are asking for rest breaks in proportion to the temperature outside as well as employers being required to provide workers with a certain amount of water every hour. This does not require some sort of a technological breakthrough. It’s very easy and inexpensive.”

The failure of OSHA to adopt a heat standard has left many workers unprotected. According to Public Citizen, 563 workers have died from heat-related injuries and 46,000 have suffered serious injuries in the last 20 years.

“These deaths are completely preventable with just a few, inexpensive interventions, some of which have already been implemented in several states,” says Dr. Thomas Bernard, who reviewed a proposed NIOSH heat standard back in 1986. “The time is long overdue for a federal heat stress standard that will protect workers from dangerous heat exposure.”

FULL story at link.

[madrchsod]

1. i worked in two drop forge shops and a steel mill

all three were either hotter than the hubs of hell and colder than a witch`s tit. two union shops and one dam good owner. we could get out of the heat and cold because it was hard to replace anyone who would work in these conditions and it was hard to find people with enough common sense to due their jobs

if one works in the extreme heat or cold with out a break big mistakes are made in the jobs they are doing. mistakes cost huge amounts of money to repair and humans cost a lot in workman`s comp payments.

there`s no excuse for ohsa NOT to set standards for jobs that require people to work in extreme heat or cold.

[Mnemosyne]

2. ...

[DCKit]

3. How can they? Excessive heat is all we're likely to see from here on out. nt