Protecting Workers From Heat Stress - OHS Insider

1 1 Protecting Workers From heat Stress Protecting Workers From heat Stress : What Are an Employer's Legal Obligations? Bongarde 2010 Bongarde 2 Protecting Workers From heat Stress INTRODUCTION. Employers across Canada have a duty to protect Workers This Special Report will help you overcome this from the dangers posed by exposure to high problem by: temperatures whether from equipment, such as ovens and furnaces, or from weather conditions. Failure to Explaining how the different jurisdictions regulate the meet this obligation exposes Workers to heat -related hazard of heat Stress .

2 Illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and even death (we'll refer to all these hazards with the Outlining what the OHS laws require companies to do general term heat Stress throughout this Special to protect Workers from heat Stress ; and Report). It also exposes your company to stop-work orders, prosecutions and fines. As the company's safety Spelling out the components of a heat Stress plan coordinator, it's up to you to ensure that your company that will fulfill those legal obligations. fulfills its heat Stress duties.

3 To help you zero in on your company's specific But trying to figure out the law of heat Stress can be obligations, there's a chart on page 4 setting out each of tricky, especially if you're based in a jurisdiction in which the jurisdictions' heat Stress requirements. There's also the OHS laws don't specifically mention the topic. a Model heat Stress Plan on page 10 that you can adapt However, even in those jurisdictions, employers still and use in your workplace. And there's a list of have a duty to protect Workers from heat Stress .

4 So how resources on heat Stress on page 11. are you supposed to figure out what exactly the law requires the company to do as to heat Stress let alone comply with those requirements? Editor Robin L. Barton, Esq. Managing Editor Glenn S. Demby, Esq. President Robert L. Ransom The information presented herein has been compiled from various sources believed to be reliable; however, it cannot be assumed that all acceptable safety measures are contained in this publication or that other additional measures may not be required under particular or exceptional circumstances.

5 While every effort is made to ensure that information and recommendations contained within this publication are the best current opinions on the subject, no guarantee or warranty is made by Bongarde Holdings Inc., as to the absolute correctness or sufficiency of any representation contained in this publication herewith. Please honor our copyright on this publication. If you require additional copies, please call us at 1-800-667-9300 TOLL FREE. Sales: 1-800-667-9300. Fax: 1-250-493-2283. Main Office: 1-250-493-2200. Bongarde 2010 Bongarde Bongarde 3 Protecting Workers From heat Stress UNDERSTANDING THE LAW OF heat Stress .

6 Exposure to extreme heat is perhaps the oldest form of Explanation: All OHS statutes include a broadly workplace hazard. But recognition of the potentially worded provision that requires employers to ensure a dangerous and lethal effects of heat -related illnesses generally safe and healthy workplace. For example, Sec. has been relatively slow in coming. So has regulation of 25(2)(h) of the Ontario OHS Act requires employers to these hazards. However, it's now understood that all take every reasonable precaution in the circumstances Canadian jurisdictions regulate heat Stress ; they just for the protection of the worker .

7 This section is don't do it the same way. generally referred to as the general duty clause. The government can use this clause to require employers to The 10 Direct Regulation Jurisdictions protect Workers from hazards that aren't specifically mentioned in the OHS regulations, such as heat Stress . Ten jurisdictions Fed, BC, MB, NB, NL, NS, PE, QC, SK. and YT have specific heat Stress provisions in their OHS For example, according to the Ontario Ministry of regulations. Employers in these jurisdictions who don't Labour (MOL), Employers have a duty under the follow the requirements set out in the regulations run Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) to take every the risk of liability.

8 Precaution reasonable in the circumstances to protect Workers . This includes developing hot environment Example: Section 23(1) of New Brunswick's OHS. policies and procedures to protect Workers in hot Regulations requires employers to ensure that a environments due to hot processes or hot weather.. competent person instructs Workers exposed to excessive heat in the significance of symptoms of heat heat Stress Guidelines Stress , such as heat exhaustion, dehydration, heat cramps, prickly heat and heat stroke and precautions to Both jurisdictions that directly regulate heat Stress and avoid injury.

9 A boilermaker collapsed while performing those that do so through the general duty clause often repairs inside an overheated paper mill during a heat issue bulletins or guidelines that list specific measures wave. He died the next day of heat stroke. The for employers to take to protect Workers from heat boilermaker had been on the job three days. The night Stress . Note that the heat Stress recommendations in before, he actually passed out on the floor of his hotel bulletins and guidelines may not technically be legally room. But the co- worker he was sharing the room with binding.

10 But as a practical matter, when the agency that hadn't been instructed on heat Stress . So he didn't oversees OHS enforcement recommends use of specific recognize what was happening. He also made the measures to comply with the law, it's almost as situation worse by encouraging the boilermaker to drink authoritative as actual law. Thus, failing to adopt heat beer and letting him go to work exhausted the next day. Stress recommendations in government guidelines puts The company pleaded guilty and was fined $7,500 [R. v. your company in a precarious legal position, especially if Lorneville Mechanical Contractors, Ltd.]