St. Paul, Minn, March 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Despite being commonly underreported, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicates that—between 2011 and 2019—environmental heat cases still accounted for an average of 38 fatalities per year and 2,700 incidents resulting in missed workdays.
This, coupled with alarming upward trends in global temperature, has triggered an intensified effort among occupational safety leaders such as the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) members and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) to urge protection of workers from heat exposure through prevention programs and products. These include water, rest, shade and supplemental body cooling personal protective equipment (PPE).
“Considering the past 7 years were far and away the hottest on record, OSHA’s advanced notice of proposed rulemaking is a critical step in beginning to address this serious and growing workplace issue,” said Tom Votel, Ergodyne President & CEO and Board Chair of ISEA. ISEA is a recognized leader in the development of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and other globally accredited safety equipment standards, as well as a key stakeholder in occupational safety rule making.
In parallel with state-led regulations and broad-scale public service campaigns such as OSHA’s Water.Rest.Shade program, ISEA members including safety work gear manufacturer Ergodyne have long worked to fill the absence of a federal heat stress standard with grassroots efforts to draw awareness, develop prevention programs and provide portable work shelters, hydration solutions and cooling PPE such as evaporative cooling vests, hats and towels for curbing heat-related illnesses and fatalities.
Those initiatives continue in full as momentum for OSHA to implement a federal heat stress standard builds. Last fall, the agency announced their intent to
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