PAGE 4 | August 21, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Heat
kills
A warming planet is increasing
the risk of dying from heat, but
OSHA has ignored calls to protect
workers.
By Noah Wass
On a warming planet, extreme
heat is becoming more and more
common. And for those who
work outdoors, that can mean a
trip to the hospital, or worse.
A 2019 study by a group of
occupational health researchers
found that a gradual increase in
summer temperatures led to an
increase in heat-related deaths
among construction workers in
the United States from 1992 to
2016. Over that 24-year period,
783 workers died from heat re-
lated causes. Construction
workers—just 6% of the U.S.
workforce—accounted for 36%
of the heat-related deaths, study
authors found. Within construc-
tion, the occupations at highest
risk from heat were cement ma-
sons and roofers.
The human body does an ex-
cellent job cooling itself by
sweating, says Dede Mont-
gomery, an occupational safety
expert at Oregon Institute of Oc-
cupational Health Sciences at
OHSU (formerly CROET). As
air circulates over the skin,
sweat evaporates and takes the
heat with it, cooling the whole
body. But Montgomery says
that only works if the air humid-
ity is low enough, and if the skin
has some exposure to air. Wear-
ing personal protective equip-
ment like coated suits, fire proof
clothing, or masks, can slow
down or eliminate your body’s
ability to sweat, Montgomery
says. That’s when things start to
get dangerous.
“Now we’ve started to lose
fluids,” Montgomery said. “The
most important thing to avoid
heat stress or exhaustion is to be
drinking enough fluids to replace
the fluids lost in sweating. Heat
stroke is soon to follow if this loss
of fluids and exposure to heat is
not quickly remedied.”
“Heat stroke is the point when
you have no fluids left. You have
dry skin, you're not sweating at
this point; your body is not cool-
ing and is taking in all of the heat
from the surrounding environ-
ment. This is a true medical emer-
gency, and you must call 911.”
In California, employers must provide water, shade, and extra rest breaks to protect you in extreme heat. In Oregon,
there’s no such requirement.
Heat stroke can become a real
threat on days when the “heat in-
dex” — the “feels like” tempera-
ture that combines temperature
and humidity — is above 103 de-
grees Fahrenheit. Symptoms of
heat stroke include hot, red, dry
skin or profuse sweating; very
high body temperature; a fast
strong pulse; and confusion,
slurred speech, vomiting, dizzi-
ness, seizures and loss of con-
sciousness.
Walter Jones, director of Occu-
pational Safety and Health at La-
borers’ Health and Safety Fund of
North America (LHSFNA), de-
scribes it as “cooking your body,
not unlike an egg in a frying pan.”
“Your body begins to shut
down in an attempt to conserve
energy, to protect the core and vi-
tal organs. Folks recover, but not
unlike a stroke there will be cer-
tain parts of your brain that you
lose access to permanently.”
Heat stroke kills when vital or-
gans become dehydrated.
In high humidity, the human
body’s ability to cool itself
through sweating decreases, and
the moisture from the surround-
ing air starts to ADD heat to the
body instead of removing it. In
the Pacific Northwest, where hu-
midity often stays quite low dur-
ing the hottest months, direct sun-
light exposure poses the greatest
risk. Working in full sunlight can
increase heat index values by 15
degrees Fahrenheit.
UA Local 598 assistant busi-
ness manager Jeremy Moddrell,
president of the Pendleton
Building Trades Council, says
Eastern Oregon workers con-
tend with high heat and sun ex-
posure every summer.
“We just had three days in a
row of over 100 degree weather
up here in Prineville,” Moddrell
says. Contractors are usually
good about providing cold water,
Moddrell says, but he’d like to
see electrolytes be more of a pri-
ority. Moddrell says employers
should also provide breaks in the
shade every hour to cool off.
Another group of Northwest
workers for whom extreme heat
is a hazard: Paper mill workers.
Greg Pallesen, president of
4,500-member Association of
Western Pulp and Paper Work-
ers (AWPPW), says paper mill
workers are at risk because they
labor in extremely high humid-
ity environments and are fre-
quently exposed to dangerous
temperatures. Last summer, nu-
merous AWPPW members at
the Nippon Dynawave paper
How to stay safe
when it gets hot
OHSU occupational safety expert Dede Mont-
gomery stresses the importance of having a plan
to avoid unsafe exposure to heat. It helps to know
what your work environment will be like, and the
heat index can give you a sense of the risks.
OSHA has an app for iPhone and Android smart
phones that can tell you the current and forecasted
heat index so you can plan accordingly.
■ Drink one to two cups of cool water every 15-20 minutes
■ Take a rest break out of the sun or away from any hot environment
(at least 15 minutes and should be taken each hour)
■ Avoid consuming alcohol and caffeine (including caffeinated
sodas) before and during hot weather
mill in Longview, Washington,
reported symptoms of heat
stress and heat related injuries.
Pallesen says that’s the result of
long hours without proper
breaks to drink water and cool
off. One worker even walked
out after she was repeatedly de-
nied a break.
OSHA fails to protect workers
The Occupational Safety and
Health Act of 1970 says employ-
ers have a “general duty” to pro-
vide a place of employment free
from recognized hazards that
may cause death or serious harm.
But federal OSHA has never de-
veloped specific workplace pro-
tections addressing heat safety,
despite the fact that worker safety
experts have been pushing since
the 1970s for a national rule to
protect workers from heat stress.
And enforcement of unsafe ex-
posure to heat appears to be get-
ting worse. According to a 2019
review of data by the AFL-CIO,
the number of federal OSHA in-
spections for extreme heat expo-
sure declined by nearly half in the
first two years of the Trump ad-
ministration, from 187 inspec-
tions in 2016 to 95 in 2018.
Over the years and in the face
of federal inaction, California,
An OSHA smart-
phone app lets
you see and pre-
dict if the “feels
like” temperature
will put you at
risk, and lists the
symptoms of dan-
gerous heat-re-
lated illnesses
Download it at
bit.ly/3iMQvkD
Washington, and Minnesota de-
veloped specific rules to protect
workers from extreme heat.
California’s rule was the
first—signed into law in 2005—
and it remains the strongest in the
nation. It covers nearly all out-
door workers in California. and
requires employers to provide ad-
equate shade, water, and cool-
down rest periods. The rule cov-
ers construction and agriculture,
industries in which workers
spend the most time outdoors ex-
posed to direct sunlight.
Washington’s heat rule covers
all outside employees and applies
from May 1 to September 30
each year. The rule requires that
employees have a written plan of
action for working in high heat
conditions. Workers are responsi-
ble for monitoring their own per-
sonal hydration, and the rule re-
quires that employers allow
enough time for employees to
drink one quart of water per hour.
But no part of Washington’s rule
requires employers to provide
shade or more frequent cool
down breaks on extreme heat
days—which OHSU’s Mont-
gomery says are a critical part of
heat safety according.
And Oregon and 46 other
states have no rule protecting
workers from heat exposure. Ore-
gon OSHA does provide employ-
ers a set of guidelines to follow in
order to protect workers from
heat. But Kate Suisman, attorney
at the Northwest Workers’ Justice
Project, has little faith in the pro-
gram's effectiveness for workers
that need protection the most.
“We need to have an actual
written rule that requires water
and frequent breaks,” Suisman
said. “Guidelines aren’t enough,
and OSHA doesn’t like to use its
power to punish employers.”
Suisman’s group provides le-
gal resources to low-income and
immigrant workers. Together
with a coalition of labor leaders
and farm worker advocates called
Safe Jobs Oregon, Suisman has
been pushing Oregon OSHA to
pass a heat rule since 2018. She’s
not hopeful that Oregon will see
a heat rule any time soon.
Without a binding permanent
rule requiring employers to pro-
vide adequate water, shade and
breaks, workers will continue to
die of extreme heat exposure.
Suisman believes the solution is
simple.
“This is not a high tech issue,”
Suisman said. “This is not some-
thing about aerosols or infectious
diseases. This is about making
sure workers have access to
shade, water and breaks. It should
be easy.”
