California has taken a step towards protecting workers in warehouses, restaurants, and manufacturing industries from extreme heat, which can pose a severe risk to their health. The state has implemented a new rule that aims to safeguard indoor workers from excessive heat. This comes in response to the increasing temperatures in warehouses that can be hazardous and put employees’ well-being in danger. The rule is expected to ensure that workers are kept safe and healthy while on the job.
On Thursday afternoon, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board made a decision to implement regulations aimed at safeguarding indoor workers from extreme heat in California.
Only two other states, Oregon and Minnesota, have implemented similar protections for individuals who work indoors in settings like warehouses, restaurants, and refineries. California has now joined this group. According to estimates by the state, approximately 1.4 million people who work indoors in environments that can quickly become dangerously hot will be covered by this new regulation.
Laura Stock, the director of the Labor Occupational Health Program at the University of California, Berkeley and a former Cal/OSHA Standards Board member, emphasizes the urgent public health crisis caused by the impact of heat on health. As she points out, this crisis is being felt throughout the country. According to Stock, the new regulation was necessary and aligns with California’s recognition of heat as a life-threatening exposure hazard.
Employers are now mandated to provide employees with cool areas to take breaks when indoor temperatures reach 82 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature goes above 87 degrees, employers must also modify work practices. This could entail adjusting work schedules to cooler times of the day or utilizing cooling equipment, such as fans or air conditioning, to lower the temperature of workspaces.
According to Eric Berg, the deputy chief of health and research and standards at Cal/OSHA, the implementation of the rule could take place as early as August.
According to Tim Shadix, the legal director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a worker advocacy group located in Southern California, workers who are already dealing with dangerously hot weather are eagerly waiting for relief to arrive soon.
According to Shadix, some workplaces can be unbearable during summer, feeling like a hot tin can in the sun. The hope is that there won’t be any more delays and that both employees and employers will be informed of these new protections before the end of summer.
In early June, temperatures in some inland regions that house thousands of warehouses broke records, reaching well above 100 degrees. According to the World Weather Attribution group, June’s heat wave was not only longer and hotter, but also 35 times more likely to occur in a world without human-caused climate change.
Sarah Fee was previously employed in warehouses located in the Inland Empire, Southern California. The summer weather often reaches temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, and some warehouses can be equally or even hotter than the outdoor temperature.
She recalls feeling completely sick and drenched in sweat when leaving work. Even with fans blowing, it didn’t seem to suffice.
A spotty patchwork of heat rules nationwide
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Currently, there are no national regulations in place to safeguard employees, whether they work outside or indoors, from hazardous heat. According to the General Duty clause of the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, employers must ensure workplaces are free from known hazards, including heat exposure. However, worker advocates argue that the heat-specific risk guidelines are difficult to implement and have been utilized sparingly.
As the federal guidance on the matter remains inadequate, several cities such as Phoenix, Ariz., along with five states including Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota, have taken it upon themselves to establish regulations that grant outdoor workers, such as those in the farming or construction industries, the right to water breaks and the ability to seek refuge in shaded areas during times of extreme heat.
However, some have taken a firm stance against implementing such regulations. In fact, Miami-Dade County in Florida had plans to introduce a local rule aimed at mitigating heat-related hazards for outdoor workers earlier this year. Unfortunately, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a state law forbidding cities or counties from creating their own heat regulations, ultimately blocking the proposed measure.
The protection of indoor and outdoor workers from heat-related illnesses is a priority for OSHA, and they have been working on a national-scale heat rule. However, the development of the rule is a time-consuming process, and it could take years to be implemented. Recently, a draft of the rule was sent to the White House for review.
According to Jill Rosenthal, the director of public health policy at the Center for American Progress, California’s implementation of the indoor heat rule is a significant move that sends a message to other states and employers to take note. She believes that more states should follow suit and adopt similar policies for both health and economic reasons.
As of now, heat exposure is causing harm and even fatalities among workers in California and other places.
A long road to indoor heat protection
Back in 2016, a bill was passed by California lawmakers, mandating Cal/OSHA to develop a regulation that would safeguard indoor workers against heat exposure, similar to the existing law that protects outdoor workers, which was established in 2005. The state was expected to formulate the regulation by 2019, but disagreements regarding its coverage impeded its progress for several years. The disputes revolved around determining the industries that the measure would apply to, identifying the necessary actions to be taken once certain temperatures were reached, and determining which businesses must implement active cooling systems in excessively hot workspaces.
Earlier this year, the rule’s text was finalized. The vote for the standards board was scheduled to take place in March 2024. However, just a day before the vote, California’s Department of Finance informed the board about their concerns regarding the cost of complying with the rule. Specifically, they were worried about the effort required to bring the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) into compliance. CDCR runs more than 30 state-owned adult facilities throughout the state, and most of them are cooled using fans or evaporative coolers, not air conditioning.
During the March meeting, the board members conveyed their disappointment with the sudden postponement and conducted a symbolic vote to endorse the regulation regardless.
On Thursday, a new version of the rule was passed, which now excludes CDCR. The Standards Board has stated that it will develop a separate pathway to address the safety of these workers. However, AnaStacia Nicol Wright from WorkSafe, a worker rights organization, expresses concern that the process could take a while, which could put thousands of employees and prisoners at risk for another summer or longer. During the meeting, she pointed out that incarcerated workers are also employees under California labor code and that they are at risk of heat exhaustion and dehydration due to working in poorly ventilated buildings with little protection from high temperatures.
According to Rob Moutrie, a senior policy advocate with the California Chamber of Commerce, there are still some employer groups who are not entirely on board with certain aspects of the rule. He emphasized that numerous small businesses that lease their facilities are not in control of their infrastructure, which makes it challenging or even impossible for them to comply with the new rule’s requirement of providing cool-down spaces.
During the meeting, Bryan Little, who is the director of labor affairs at the California Farm Bureau, shared that his group had the same worries as CDCR regarding the expenses involved in setting up and utilizing “engineering controls,” such as air conditioning, to keep workplaces cool. Little expressed his concerns about the challenges of being an employer advocate and wondered about the requirements for being heard.
According to Stock, the rule may be implemented as early as late summer, and the sooner it is put into action, the better.
She says the urgency of the matter is crystal clear. Climate change is only making matters worse, as it intensifies the impact on temperature, increasing exposure. The temperatures are rising for longer periods, making the situation even more dire.
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