Every year, thousands of workers are exposed to heat on the job created by environmental conditions, clothing and workload. This heat exposure can lead to costly mistakes, time lost due to illness and even death in extreme heat illness situations. Government organizations, like OSHA, implement guidelines and regulations to ensure that heat-related prevention practices are in place to protect these workers. Ultimately, however, heat-related illness prevention is most effective when management commits to identifying and reducing exposure to heat hazards, which can range from lack of air movement to sources of radiant heat and temperature.
To spur management commitment and involvement relative to this safety issue, looking at OSHA guidelines is a good place to initiate an assessment of the changes necessary in an organization to eliminate harmful heat stress and protect its workers. Not only will it help define a benchmark for the fundamental approach to meet minimum guidelines, it will also help generate a proactive mind set for adopting best practices.