Wisconsin has been experiencing an extremely hot summer, with nearly 40 days of above-average heat.
That can be a serious health concern for people who work outdoors, but there aren't many protections for heat safety on the job.
Kate McCoy is the program director for the Occupational Health and Safety Surveillance program at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. She says hot days can create severe health risks for workers if employers aren’t providing them with plenty of water, rest and shade.
“In the worst-case scenario, heat can kill,” McCoy says. “People are not meant to work in very hot conditions without proper protections in place. So we really need to make sure that workers and employers are aware that this is a real threat.”
McCoy co-authored a report last year that shows heat is a concern for workers in Wisconsin. The report examined and found that a high number of worker compensation claims relating to heat-related illness were filed by various job sectors.
“It’s something that we wanted to call out in that data, because we know this is a bigger and bigger concern for more people, not just in Wisconsin,” she says. “And it was surprising to us that we were seeing more and more denials in the claims.”
The report also notes Wisconsin is likely to face hotter days and more of them due to climate change. This makes it even more critical for employers to provide workers with heat protection, she says.
One example of how workers took heat safety into their own hands is UPS workers.
Kevin Schwerdtfeger is the president of Teamsters Local 344. The union represents and organizes service workers in Milwaukee and surrounding counties — including UPS workers.
Schwerdtfeger spoke with Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez about the heat safety standards Teamsters union members fought to have in UPS employee contracts.
“This was a major concern for us … heat-related illnesses are things that happen, and they are not often things that get necessarily talked about,” Schwerdtfeger says. “There's a series of things that we've done to maintain [heat safety] moving forward: air conditioning, water jugs, union worker-led safety committees, education on signs of heat illness and fatigue, the ability to take breaks … to keep yourself as safe as possible.”
You can listen to Nuñez’s conversation with Schwerdtfeger in the article below.
The following is an excerpt of Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez conversation with McCoy about the dangers of high heat in the workplace and ways to stay safe. It has been edited for length and clarity.
You looked at different occupations that reported problems with heat and filed workers’ compensation claims. What are some of the job fields you looked at?
We saw a lot of the claims were from folks like firefighters, protective service workers, people operating heavy machinery and people working in manufacturing. And more generally, we know those are people who are at risk, but there's an even broader group than we can show with that data source. So really, anyone who does outdoor work in hot conditions without proper precautions in place can be at risk. Think about construction sites, landscaping, agriculture, utility workers, delivery drivers, all of those folks, and more.
Indoor workers can also be at substantial risk. If you think of stuffy, hot spaces or locations where there's equipment that radiates a lot of heat. All of a sudden, even if it's not terribly hot outside, those spaces can become very hot inside. Think about a warehouse. Think about a hot kitchen. Think about a stuffy attic that someone is removing asbestos from… those can become very risky environments. So there are a lot of workers who can be at risk under the wrong conditions.
The report also noted that workers who filed worker compensation claims for heat-related illnesses were often denied. Can you talk more about that finding and why you and your co-authors found it concerning?
Isn't that an interesting finding? It’s something that we wanted to call out in that data, because we know this is a bigger and bigger concern for more people, not just in Wisconsin, and it was surprising to us that we were seeing more and more denials in the claims. We're not sure exactly why that is. We are in contact with folks who work with insurers and workers' comp generally, and really trying to get the word out about that finding.
But what we want to make sure is that people are not being dissuaded or discouraged from bringing up these claims and saying, “I need medical help.” People need that income, and if they are injured… they need that to cover the hours that they've lost after they were down by heat. We also need that information because, like in our report, it's one of the ways that we can try to keep track of how many people are affected. So it's problematic when people are dissuaded from being able to make those legitimate claims.
What are some of the common signs and symptoms of heat-related illness that coworkers and employers should watch out for when they're working outside or in stuffy, hot places
The most dangerous things are if somebody starts passing out, if they start seizing, having seizures, if they are acting confused or abnormal, or slurred speech, that's an immediate 911 call. But there are also earlier signs and symptoms that people need to pay attention to: If you're feeling dizzy, lightheaded, if you're getting nauseous, vomiting, or getting a real headache or cramps while on the job, when it's hot, those are a few of the symptoms to be aware of. And I would say to people who are working in hot conditions, if it feels uncomfortably hot to you and you're feeling off, start paying attention to it right then.
Reflecting on what we've talked about so far, what's your message to employers on how to create a safe workspace, outdoors and indoors?
The sort of tagline for both employers and workers is water, rest, shade. Whether that's air conditioning, shaded areas, exhaust ventilation, using misters, giving out specialized cooling, PPE, things like that. The other thing is to make scheduling adjustments, so that might be… heavier work during cooler parts of the day or at night. It might mean slowing down your production schedules enough to get those rest breaks in.
If you have new folks on the job, make sure that they have time to acclimate… we know that 70% of heat-related fatalities on the job take place during the first week of work, because people's bodies just need that time to get used to it.
It’s also important for employers, frontline supervisors and workers to know the signs and symptoms of heat-related illness… and spend time training on it. And most importantly: tell your workers that it's okay for them to speak up sooner rather than later when they're feeling the effects of heat, because too often, people push through, and that's when some of the scariest scenarios happen.
You can learn more about the Wisconsin Department of Health Services report by visiting their website.
