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Cal/OSHA Proposed Indoor Heat Illness Prevention Standard

California is known for its warm and sunny weather, which can pose a risk for heat illness. Heat illness does not only affect those employees working outdoors under the California sun, it can also affect those indoors, especially during heat waves or in buildings without proper ventilation or air conditioning.

Cal/OSHA has officially proposed an indoor heat illness prevention standard to protect workers from heat-related illnesses in indoor workplaces. This standard would apply to all indoor work areas where the temperature equals or exceeds 82 degrees Fahrenheit when employees are present.

Employers would be required to implements measures to protect workers from heat illness indoors including:

• Providing access to drinking water, access to cool down areas, and preventative cool down rest periods.
• Implementing an indoor heat illness prevention program in addition to an outdoor heat illness prevention program (title 8: §3395)
• Monitoring weather conditions and adjusting work practices as needed.
• Implementing engineering or administrative controls to reduce heat exposure, such as providing air conditioning or ventilation systems.
• Training.

In addition, the standard could require employers to provide additional protections for employees working in high-heat areas or under high-heat conditions, including implementing a more comprehensive heat illness prevention plan, conducting pre-shift meetings and monitoring employees for signs of heat illness.

You may read the draft regulation here: https://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/documents/Indoor-Heat-proptxt.pdf  The Public Hearing is May 18, 2023.

For more information and to review your current Heat Illness Prevention Program in accordance with title 8: §3395 contact CSTC at 661-377-8300.

In this Video ( with transcription ), Ben Laverty IV from California Safety Training Corporation ( CSTC ) talks about the recent changes to OSHA 300 Log reporting, and the upcoming deadlines, including fines, and how to use your OSHA 300 logs to help your business.

New Regulations in 2019 means you should update your Injury and Illness Prevention Program ( IIPP or I2P2 ). In this Video ( with Transcript for reading ), Dr Ben Laverty III explains why you should update your IIPP, and what are some of the regulations that have changed recently, as well as requirements for your IIPP and your Emergency Action Plan ( EAP ).

On August 30,2018 the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment will begin enforcing law changes to the Proposition 65 rules. Any business who exposes people to chemicals on the Prop 65 list without providing “clear and reasonable” warnings will be subject to citations and fines.  Three types of exposures require the warnings,  consumer product, occupational and environmental.   Areas where these Prop 65 chemicals are used are both rural and urban.  Agricultural pesticides, turf applications, ornamental, dyes that “set” the colors in carpet paints, glues are some examples. Active or inert ingredients that are on the Prop 65 list must be covered and documented.  

After several years of back and forth it appears the federal government is requiring employers in the state of California to submit Osha 300 forms to the federal government by July 1^st of this year!

This is not retroactive to the year 2016 but 2017 will need to be submitted this year.

Many employers with over 20 employees must submit.  Farms, construction and manufacturing are required to report if they have employed over 19 employees in the past year.

They are now recognized as Tractor Mounted Personnel Transport Carriers or PTCs (as referred to by Cal/OSHA) but have gone by many names. Whether you call it a tractor basket, personnel transport platform or any variation of these, you have probably seen one in use as they have long been assisting workers on the farm as a transportation device.
Typically used for transporting workers in field irrigation operations, these devices had safely and successfully been employed for many years without issue as there was no specific regulations governing their use. Beginning in 2010 there were varying opinions on the part of Cal/OSHA regarding the legal use of these devices. That is until 2012 when they were in violation of Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations (CCR) section 3441(a)(2)(B), which prohibits "riders on agricultural equipment other than persons required for instruction or assistance in machine operation."

The requirements to obtain a Hazardous Agricultural Materials (HAM) Certificate changed January 1, 2018. We wanted to remind you of the existing requirements, while highlighting the changes. 

One of the hardest aspects of safety can be keeping up with the laws and requirements that are ever changing... on top of the day to day duties involved with running your business. This is where working with a Safety Training Company can help, and why here at CSTC we are not only helping our customers, but you our readers keep up to date with those changes. In this blog post, we're going to take a quick look at some of the more recent changes in PHC Pesticides, and what you have to do to stay current and compliant.