DEPARTMENTS
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
DONNA S. HEIDEL, CIH, FAIHA, is principal industrial hygienist at Amazon.
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Progress on Heat Hazards
BY DONNA S. HEIDEL, AIHA PRESIDENT
What a pleasure it was to attend AIHce EXP 2022 in Nashville this past May! After more than two years of virtual-only meetings, our members came out in full force for the first face-to-face AIHce since the 2019 conference in Minneapolis. I’m looking forward to seeing how this energy translates into new resources for protecting workers and helps AIHA move closer to fulfilling our mission.
BUILDING MOMENTUM
One area of OEHS practice that has a lot of momentum is heat stress. Just last month, The Synergist published an article on preventing heat-related illness and discussed ways to lessen heat burden from personal protective equipment. AIHA has commented on proposed heat stress standards in Virginia and Maryland, and has followed legislation addressing heat-related illnesses in several states. The AIHce program included a professional development course and other sessions on heat stress, and the Upton Sinclair Memorial Lecture was delivered by Kristen Lombardi, a journalist who contributed to a series of articles about OSHA investigations of heat exposures.
For its part, OSHA recently launched a national emphasis program on heat stress and initiated the rulemaking process for a standard that would protect workers from heat hazards in both outdoor and indoor work settings. At the AIHce closing session, Jim Frederick, the deputy assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, spent part of his address talking about the agency’s efforts. “We know there are heat hazards in many different workplaces,” Frederick said. “Heat is a problem that many workers—both indoors and outdoors—face.”
Frederick acknowledged that heat is a complex challenge and that assessing heat hazards requires knowledge of personal risk factors and Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT). He also stated that OSHA’s standard will need to account for the widely varying capabilities of workplaces across the United States, some of which will not have the expertise to monitor WBGT. Understandably, Frederick couldn’t say when the agency’s heat standard would be completed, and he reminded attendees that “issuing an OSHA standard takes, on average, seven and a half years.” That time is necessary to ensure that the agency produces a defendable standard, Frederick said.
One area of OEHS practice that has a lot of momentum is
heat stress.
A NEW VOLUNTEER EFFORT
But we don’t have to wait that long to make a difference. Earlier this year, AIHA formed a Thermal Stress Working Group (TSWG) that has already identified ways AIHA can help.
As just one example, TSWG members are launching a research project intended to determine current attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge about heat stress across several industries. The project would involve a survey that will help TSWG and AIHA understand what resources employers need.
Conducting the survey, analyzing the results, and developing resources to address identified needs would probably take at least a year, so the TSWG is also considering creating guidance that could help employers in the shorter term. Such guidance could follow the model of Back to Work Safely, the AIHA initiative that quickly produced dozens of short, practical guidance documents for various types of businesses that were reopening after COVID-19 lockdowns were lifted in 2020.
TSWG members are also involved in discussions with NIOSH and OSHA related to possible updates to the agencies’ jointly developed heat safety app. The app currently relies on heat index to identify heat risk levels. A potential upgrade to the app would base its risk determinations on WBGT, which, unlike the heat index, accounts for radiant energy from sources of heat. Upgrading the app would be a resource-intensive undertaking for both agencies, and for this reason, no timeline has been identified to date for completing it.
HOW TO HELP
Like Back to Work Safely, the TSWG is demonstrating how much a dedicated group of volunteers can accomplish in a short amount of time. If you would like to contribute, please consider joining TSWG. More information is available from AIHA's website.