A Key to Staying Safe While Working in the Heat: Acclimatization

[Omaha Steve]

http://hr.blr.com/news.aspx?id=78461

June 09, 2008

One of the best defenses against heat-related illnesses and fatalities is allowing employees to acclimate to the heat, says the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, also known as Cal/OSHA.

Letting workers to adjust to changes in weather by gradually increasing their exposure and physical activity likely reduces the risk of heat-related issues, the agency says.

"Our studies of heat-related illnesses and deaths indicate that acclimatization is an important factor in the prevention of heat illness," says Cal/OSHA Chief Len Welsh. "It is especially critical to be vigilant with new workers, and during our first exposure to the high temperatures such as those we are currently experiencing."

The risk of dying from heat illness appears to be highest for employees who just begin working in extreme heat as the body needs to adapt gradually to exertions in the heat and humidity, the agency says. Most people adjust to the weather or acclimate within four-to-14 days of regular work levels, according to Cal/OSHA heat illness prevention data.

"It is imperative to monitor your employees at all times during hot weather and allow those who are new to working in hot weather to gradually adapt to the daily routine," said Welsh.

Raising awareness is also an important key in preventing heat illness.

FULL story at link.

[JeanGrey]

1. You know, I remember going back to high school in 1969 as a

Freshman and wearing skirts, blouses, hose and pumps (with garter belts) in a brick four story school with no air conditioning when it was about 98 outside. I don't remember them being worried about our "acclimation". Also I can remember wearing wool stretch pants to walk to school in in the snow, hanging them in the locker (you couldn't wear pants) and then trying to pull on wet, cold, stretch pants in the afternoon to go home.

I realize workers need help in the heat but we worked in it back then too!

[kdmorris]

2. I'm sorry, but it's not the same

You sat there in school. These people do physical labor in the heat, in full sunlight.

It's just not the same.

[Omaha Steve]

3. 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez died due to heat stroke (she was also pregnant)

http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/maria?source=web



Last week we told you about the tragic death of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez. She died due to heat stroke while laboring in a Stockton area vineyard.

Maria Isabel, who was two months pregnant, was working for Merced Farm Labor in a vineyard owned by West Coast Grape Farming. Her body temperature was 108.4 degrees when she was finally taken to a hospital nearly two hours after she collapsed. (Click to read Maria's story.)

To date no one from the companies involved has had the decency to express condolences to Maria's family--not the farm labor contractor, not the company who owns the field where Maria labored, nor the wine distributor. There have been no letters, no one showed up at the funeral--nothing.

Please help us show Maria's family--including her grieving mother--the support from the community at large. Help us show her the impact Maria’s life and death had on strangers she never knew, people whose paths never crossed hers.

Please write a condolence note to Maria’s mother and family--a line or two will do--although you are welcome to write more. Help us show Maria’s mother that thousands of people recognize the value of Maria's life.

We will be printing out these letters and giving them to Maria’s grieving mother.

Please tell her you care.


Subject:

To the family of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez

(Edit Letter Below)
Please provide content for your letter

This sad story was posted last week.

[kdmorris]

5. Yeah, I sent a letter to her family and money to the UFWA

I can't believe there are no criminal charges bought in these cases. This case just typifies the "corporations are always right" and the devaluing of human beings as mere implements of making money.

I have 3 daughters, aged 20, 18 and 16. I cannot imagine losing one of them in such a preventable way.

And I really can't believe that someone would equate this story with "sitting in a high school with no air conditioning".

[JeanGrey]

7. We need to hold companies that do this liable..............

but we won't. Cheap labor is such a good thing after all, right?

[JeanGrey]

6. True - they are laboring, but people did then too, the point

I was making. Hot isn't new.

[ret5hd]

4. work:

school: