Resources for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

Cal/OSHA Cracks Down on Heat Illness

californiafarmer.com

Outreach and education events aimed at protecting workers from heat illness have increased over the first six months of this year as has enforcement of the nation's first heat illness prevention regulations, according to figures released by the Department of Industrial Relation's Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

Cal/OSHA has conducted 380 heat illness seminars so far this year compared to 284 for all of 2007. Cal/OSHA is also on pace to exceed the number of heat illness prevention inspections, with 659 heat-related inspections to date in 2008 compared to 1,018 for all of 2007.

"We are working with the agricultural industry to make sure all their supervisors and employees are properly trained to recognize the symptoms of heat illness and how to respond to it," says Victoria Bradshaw, secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which oversees the Department of Industrial Relations. "At the same time, our inspectors are out in the fields working diligently to enforce the training, water and shade required in heat illness regulations."

Cal/OSHA has issued more than 242 citations since the summer began, primarily for failing to have written heat illness prevention plans. During heat waves, special compliance teams are dispatched to outdoor work sites to ensure workers are being properly protected.

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