The new rule includes a rigid compliance framework for employers with indoor work areas when the temperature reaches 82 degrees.
Employers must create and implement a written Indoor Heat Illness Prevention Plan that includes procedures for accessing water, acclimatization, cool-down areas, measuring the temperature and heat index, and emergency response measures and tailored to your workplace conditions.
Employers must provide employees with fresh, pure, and suitably cool drinking water, free of charge. The water must be located as close as practicable to the areas where employees are working and in indoor “cool-down areas.” If there is no running water, you must provide each employee with one quart of drinking water per hour.
Employers must provide access to cool-down areas for recovery and meal and rest periods. Cool-down areas must be maintained at a temperature below 82 degrees, blocked from direct sunlight, and shielded from other high radiant heat sources.
Employers must allow and encourage employees to take a “preventative cool-down rest” in a cool-down area when employees feel the need to do so to protect themselves from overheating. During the preventive cool-down rest, the employer must monitor the employees, encourage them to remain in the cool-down area, and must not order them back to work until any signs or symptoms of heat illness have been abated.
Employers must closely observe employees who are newly assigned to high heat conditions for signs of heat stress during their first 14 days of work in these conditions.
Employers must effectively train non-supervisory and supervisory employees on the risks of heat illness in the workplace. This training must include both environmental and personal risk factors for heat illness, and your procedures for complying with the indoor heat illness prevention regulation and include requirements on responding to symptoms of heat illness and instructions on monitoring and responding to hot weather advisories for supervisors.
You’ll need to follow additional requirements when the temperature or heat index reaches 87 degrees. You must measure and record the temperature and heat index and maintain records of these measurements for 12 months or until the net measurements are taken. An employer has the option of not taking measurements, and instead, assuming a work area triggers the control measures, as discussed below.
The new rule requires employers to follow a hierarchy of control measures for reducing the risk of heat illness.
First, employers must use engineering controls to reduce the temperature and heat index to below 87 degrees Fahrenheit. Cal/OSHA cites the following examples of engineering controls that may be effective at minimizing the risk of heat illness:
- Isolation of hot processes and hot surfaces
- Isolation of employees from sources of heat
- Air conditioning
- Cool fans and cooling mist fans
- Evaporative coolers (swamp coolers)
- Natural ventilation where the outdoor temperature/heat index is lower than the indoor temperature/heat index
- Local exhaust ventilation
- Shielding from a radiant heat source
If engineering controls cannot bring the temperature and heat index below 87 (or 82 degrees when applicable), the next step requires employers to use administrative controls to minimize the risk of heat illness.
Examples of administrative controls are acclimatizing employees, rotating employees, scheduling work earlier or later in the day, using work/rest schedules, reducing work intensity or speed, reducing work hours, changing required work clothing,
As always if you have any questions about this new law or any HR issue please contact JorgensenHR at 661-600-2070 or info@jorgensenhr.com.
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