Ok, monitor the weather.
I think we all do a pretty good job of this we just do it intuitively
you all mentioned to me it was going to be eighty one degrees today,
so we wanted to the weather.
You don't have to go to the NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atomospheric Administration) website that's not required not the
standard.
Okay
when i mentioned all those other ways earlier here how we can monitor the
weather
right, we've got tv, radio,
got our smartphone,
there's all these apps now for the phones.. i know i use one
called weatherbug but there's all different apps out there
for your phones to be able to check the weather.
I'believed that Federal OSHA actually
has come out with a app
for heat illness protection as well.
So, and it's available to you.
I think it's both for android and iphone.
But supervisors, you need to instruct your supervisors that they do need to
check the the weather and keep track of that
and you know especially if we're going to have some sort of predicted
you know high heat wave.
Okay, we want to know that's coming
we want to be prepared to deal with that and invoke your high heat procedures.
Determine and instruct supervisors on how weather information will be used to
modify work schedules, increase
the number of water and rest breaks or cease early
if necessary.
A lot of employers are doing these things these are...
these are sort of options of dealing with the heat,
a lot of folks uh... you know start a lot earlier in the morning,
knock off earlier
and i mentioned earlier about using the audible device, you know
the warmer it gets the more they blow the whistle for a little rest break many
rest break
and drinking the water.
Just some good ideas.
All right acclimatization,
this is a really really important factor.
What is acclimatization a fancy word for?
Adapting to the environment, getting used to the heat. The fancy word for
what I’m going to say is your body from a physiological standpoint
adjusting to the heat.
Everybody from the valley here? San Joaquin valley?
We're pretty used to this.. all of a sudden
end of April.. May,
we might get some ninety degree days
and when that happens we all go.. ohh man
it’s hot! I’ts really hot! You're out there and
dealing with and man it was hot today!
You know, I feel more fatigue when i get home and
that all of a sudden it's July
and you get a ninety degree day in july in Kern County you go while it's really
nice today!
So that's
that different you have you've probably been out there we usually talk
about uh... fourteen days at least four hours a day
working out in the in the heat to get used to it.
But in July when he gets up to a hundred fifteen degrees, hundred sixteen like it
did uh... you know back in uh... we had that heat wave in two thousand six...
that was the last really bad heat wave I remember,
we even had a push of humidity come up from Mexico
during that heat wave.
You know it
was like two weeks of a hundred and ten, a hundred and fifteen you know that
that type?
Even once you've gotten used that ninety, ninety five degree heat
you are not used to that you are not acclimated that type of heat.
So there's that early heat
to be worried about the first heat of the year.
Two thousand eight
a young girl in Lodi died
and there was a young man down here in the oil fields died right at the end of
May.
It was a hundred three degrees at the end of May
on that day when that young girl that was working the vineyards up their lodi died
and there was a young man down here that it i think was his first day on the job
is working in the oil fields pasted away that same day
from the heat.
First heat of the year,
first heat of the year
but then also when we had that bad heat wave
in July of two thousand six,
eighty-four percent of all the cases
that were turned over to Cal/OSHA to investigate
occurred during that heat wave, that 2 week heat wave.
So we know these things are critical,
the other critical factor is new employees
dealing with new employees.. In two thousand five there were twenty five
cases investigated
twelve of those twenty five cases were fatalities.
And out of those twenty five cases that Cal/OSHA investigated,
forty percent it was the person's first day on the job,
eighty percent of those cases, people been on the job four days or less.
So I’ve come up with my three-strike rule -
for new employees.
Three strikes.. the first strike is that they may not be use to the heat
they're going to be working in.
So in other words
you have a worker that maybe works agriculture over in the Salinas Valley,
Watsonville area,
then they come over
here they're going to work in the San Joaquin Valley they come over mid summer
to work over here,
and then maybe the job.. the second strike is maybe the job that they're doing,
this work factor here,
they're going to be generating a lot more he heat here cause its a lot harder job.
Okay that strike two,
the environments different,
the works different.
What's the third strike
for a new employee?
Whats the new employees want to do for you?
They want to bust there butt, right!
They don't want to go over to the water cooler
you know
intermittently and get that water, take that five minute rest break
that they're supposed to
be able to do. They don’t want to do that because that shows weakness, right? They
want that job!
They want to impress you!
So those are my three strikes for a new employee.. but they're a great risk and we
realize that, so this whole idea of a acclimatization is very very important.
For all three of these reasons;
early heat in the year,
you know some of the first heat of the year,
really bad heat wave,
in uh... in the summer later in the year that we're not used to..
and then anytime with new employees.
You need to determine how your company is going to deal with
these newly hired workers in lessen the intensity or shift length..
for newly hired workers,
and we'll talk more about that in the High heat procedures here
uh... modify the work schedule, reschedule nonessential duties during
the hot summer months, be extra vigilant with your employees,
recognize immediately symptoms of possible heat illness.
How many of you take a new employee and actually buddy them up with experienced
employee when they first start?
We do that,
i think that's...
that's a good idea.
Okay
and new employees always get trained.. talk about training here
in a minute.
They always get trained before they're put out there but it's always nice to buddy
them up have somebody looking over them.
But you got to be extra vigilant with these new employees.
Now, Now we are going to talk about high heat procedures
and acclimatization comes back in here again..
okay so
these high heat procedures
only apply
to these certain industries.
If you're not in one of these industries
this part of this regulation
does not apply to you, although i think
dealing with high heat procedures,
i think they make a lot of sense,
but, if you're in agriculture, construction landscaping, oil and gas extraction
or if your in transportation delivery of agricultural construction materials
or other heavy materials
these high heat procedures from a regulatory standpoint apply to you.
Okay, so when the temperatures at ninety five or above
it kicks four things in here.
So you must implement additional preventive measures. And what you're
gonna see here as we go through these four things, the first three things
really your already required to do
it's just sort of saying you need to be extra vigilant
because now it's hotter.
Because first one here assure effective communication by voice observation or
electronic means.
We're already required to do that because we have to be prepared to deal
with an emergency.
We may have to call emergency medical services, contact somebody
so we are to need to do that.
But we need to really uh... make sure that works
there are some places where we may not have cell service.
You need to make sure that we have affective communication.
From an emergency standpoint
if you dial 911 on your cell phone who do you get
CHP right?
If you dial nine one one from a land line phone who do you get?
County..and there may be a difference for you.
Okay, depending on where you're at what you're doing
one or the other maybe faster there are agricultural
employers that i've worked with
basically their their policy is to call 911 from a cell phone
or they call from a cellphone to a dispatcher,
somebody has got a landline phone, and the person calls the county because they
know they're gonna get quicker service from the county than
calling 911.
So they have figured that out they've asked those questions they
thought about,they plan,
so you have to look at what your situation is and plan accordingly.
Number two.
Observe employees for alertness and signs and symptoms of heat illness.
We're just saying the hotter it gets the more diligent you have to be to keep
your eye on employees.
We did a conference call yesterday a stakeholder called for heat, the first one
we’ve done this year,
we had eighty-five participants on the conference call
and um... a question came up about employees working alone
and usually that question comes up each year.
That's a tough one, but you have to make sure that you have a means of
communication with employees working alone.
There are some extremely difficult situations out there
I can think of workers that i know that go up in the foothills,
that lock gates behind themselves as they go up dirt roads to provide
maintenance.
So
you need to think about how would i get to that worker,
what would we do in the event of an emergency?
So you need to think these things through for people working alone.
You just have to,
If it gets warmer you stay in touch with them more often..
I’ve mentioned this, you know, give more frequent reminders to drink
plenty of water.
Okay, i think some of us are better at this than others.
I've just noticed this in our office up in Fresno, just look around some people
have a water bottle of all the time.
Some of the people who work in the office i never see with the water bottle.
I never see drink water, so
you kind of have to take a look at your employees and remind the ones that
aren't the ones that have the water with them all the time are
constantly taken a sip,
you have to remind some people.. to drink the water.
Then the fourth one.. which is really a new and different.. it says we need to
closely supervise new employees for the first fourteen days.
okay and why do we come up with this fourteen-day uh... number?
what did i say the acclimatization period was?
was about a two week period of about four hours a day..
is what we talk about in general terms
and so that's why this says the fourteen working days..
this is like a break in period for that new employee. keep your eye on them.
So these four things that we just went through
apply
to agriculture, construction, landscaping, oil and gas extraction
and then those delivery folks that are handling those heavier items.
So uh... but i think
even for those of you don't fit in those industry i still think this is a
really good idea based on Cal/OSHA experience.
Absolutely everybody should be treated the same.
So I’ve been asked that Question do people driving a
tractor for instance ..same kind of idea
um... if they've got room where they can keep a a small container there
and drink it
otherwise it should be is closest practical if they can't keep us a
small container with them.. there.