Heat
It’s suddenly become summer. And that can be dangerous. The weather forecast for the week of May 9 is for temperatures above 80°F. We are not acclimated to that. We just came out of a really long winter and very short spring (if you blinked, you missed it). That sudden rise in temperatures puts employees at risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The first few days of hot weather are the most dangerous, but it can take two weeks to acclimate. Acclimating is a physical adaptation, allowing your body to handle the heat without rising core temperatures.
This is the earliest we have sent out heat reminders. But if the weather forecasts are correct, now is the time to take precautions.
- Encourage employees to watch out for coworkers. Employees often do not realize they’re suffering from the heat until it is a medical emergency.
- Encourage employees to drink lots of fluids frequently. Cool water is the best choice.
- Provide electrolyte drinks such as Gatorade. But they should be in addition to water, not instead of water.
- Give more breaks. Encourage employees to take breaks in cool areas. Employees may just need to slow down a bit while they acclimate to this weather.
- Use evaporation to cool down
- Use fans (grounded only!) to keep air moving. Make sure they are not aimed to blow air from one employee to another (we still need to prevent COVID19 from spreading)
- Use fans (grounded only!) to keep air moving. Make sure they are not aimed to blow air from one employee to another (we still need to prevent COVID19 from spreading)
Post This: Hazardous Waste and OSHA Required Postings
Post your hazardous waste licenses. Companies in the seven county Twin Cities Metro Area (Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Scott, Ramsey, Washington counties), should have received those, which need to be posted in a public space. If we helped you with your annual reporting, contact us if you have not received your license.
The State Unemployment Poster was updated in March 2022. You can download it for free, printable on letter-size paper:
https://uimn.org/assets/109_tcm1068-192562.pdf
Have you received flyers telling you to order the all-in-one labor poster? It probably warned of a massive OSHA penalty if you don’t have the current version. Don’t reach for your checkbook yet – that’s a marketing ploy. Since we aren’t great at marketing, we will let you know that you can download all of the Minnesota posters for free at https://www.dli.mn.gov/about-department/workplace-posters. If you like the all-in-one laminated posters, go ahead and order them.
If MN OSHA inspects your shop and finds your posters are out of date or missing, they will likely either give you the posters or tell you how to print them. The only one OSHA really cares about is the Safety and Health on the Job poster, because that tells people of their rights to a safe workplace. MNOSHA has cited companies for this, but rarely. The last was 13 years ago, an inspection because of a complaint. You need to have the posters, but you don’t need to buy new ones every year.
COVID: It’s Not Over Yet
Yeah, we want to be done with this. But the Omicron BA.2 variant is gaining steam. The amount of virus found in wastewater (per the Metropolitan Council Environmental Services) is increasing. So are positive cases. And other strains are waiting in the wings. These new strains act a bit differently: they may be more contagious and some treatments may not be effective. It still appears that keeping up with the vaccines will at least reduce the severity if you get COVID. The CDC updated their quarantine and isolation recommendation for those exposed to COVID and who test positive. You can search for “CDC COVID quarantine guidelines” or here is the link: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html
Vaccinations, close-fitting masks, distancing and ventilation continue to be the best defenses against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID.
Janet presented with Arthur E. McCauley Award
Janet Keyes recently received the Arthur E. McCauley Jr. Award from Minnesota OSHA at the Minnesota Safety Council’s annual safety conference. The award is presented annually to a safety and health professional who embodies excellence and dedication in keeping Minnesota employees safe at work. It is named for Art McCauley, a former member of the Minnesota Safety Council known for his tireless efforts to make the state’s workplaces safe.
Most people know Janet from her frequent training (she trains over 2000 employees a year!). Along with her normal work activities as a consultant and serving as our technical expert, Janet is involved in the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s Construction Committee and Confined Space Committee. She serves on the University of Minnesota Industrial Hygiene Program Advisory Board and is a representative to the NIOSH NORA Immune, Infectious and Dermal Disease Prevention Council. She also has several recent publications.
How Clear Is Your Lens?
As I wrote this article I realized two seemingly different ideas — conducting incident investigations and mental health — were intertwined. So, stick with me on this.
We all make assumptions, seeing situations through our own lens. Someone fails to show up for a meeting. Do we assume they are not interested or are lazy? Or do we wait to judge until we have the explanation? An employee cuts their hand at work. Do we assume they weren’t paying attention? Or do we ask questions to find out what really happened? Do we start with a biased cloudy lens, or do we clear the lens through which we see the incident?
The goal when you conduct an incident investigation should be to find the root causes, to prevent a similar incident. Perhaps an injury occurred when an employee removed a guard, a violation of your safety policy. The missing guard is the direct cause. If you stop your investigation there, you are using a lens that is looking for what the employee did wrong. But back up. Why was the guard removed? And if it was removed because, say, pieces were jammed in it, was that because of damage that wasn’t repaired? If the damage wasn’t repaired, why? And what caused the damage? Maybe because someone else fed the part in the wrong way. And why was the part fed in wrong? In this hypothetical scenario, maybe it was because the parts department ordered Part 1080 instead of 1000. Your cloudy lens orders the employee to “work more carefully.” Your clear lens needs to find out why the wrong parts were ordered.
How can you clear your lens to see things more clearly? Was your first thought to yell at the employee? Or fire the guy who ordered the wrong parts?
What does mental health have to do with this? We’ve been in a pandemic for over two years. We’re dealing with supply shortages, rising costs, lost work time due to illness, family members to care for, staffing shortages, kids in and out of school, wear masks, don’t wear masks, and wow, are we all exhausted. Nothing is as easy as it used to be. How does that color your lens? Does it make it cloudier? We are juggling more with fewer resources. And that means people are tired, frustrated, distracted, grieving. Can you clear your lens to see things from their point of view?
Depression and stress reduce job performance. Employees who feel overwhelmed, stressed, or burned out won’t keep working for you. Mental health at work is a workplace health issue. It affects everyone, from the lowest paid to the highest paid employees.
As the employer, what can you do? Start here: at this brief from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And consider putting up this new OSHA poster, listing five things you should know about preventing suicide. Work-related suicides have been on the rise. And even if the suicide doesn’t occur at work, it jolts all workers.
If you or a co-worker needs help with mental health issues, here are some resources:
- Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255 or texting “MN” to 741741
- Minnesota Department of Health Suicide Prevention Resource List
- Personal physician
- Employee assistance programs
- County crisis team: call **CRISIS (274747) from anywhere in Minnesota to reach a local crisis team
- MN NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
As of July 16, 2022, everyone across the United States will be able to connect to the National Suicide Prevention lifeline by dialing 9-8-8.