Cal/OSHA: Workers Need Access to Fresh Water to Prevent Heat Illness.
Triple-digit temperatures in the Southwest and West United States in the past week have already played a factor in at least two deaths, according to news reports.
Because of this, Cal/OSHA is reminding employers with outdoor workers they must provide fresh water and encourage workers to stay hydrated in order to prevent heat illness.
"It is tragic when someone dies of hyperthermia since in most every case it could have been prevented," Dr. Michelle Jorden, Medical Examiner, Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office in a statement to the press.
California’s Heat Illness Prevention Standard requires employers to train workers on the signs and symptoms of heat illness, provide shade when temperatures exceed 80 degrees.
When temperatures reach 95 degrees or above, employers are required to implement high heat procedures to ensure outdoor workers are protected.
Some of these measures include effective monitoring with a mandatory buddy system for workers or regular communication with workers who work alone.
"Outdoor workers should have enough fresh, pure and suitably cool water so that they can drink at least one quart per hour during the workday, and should not wait until they are thirsty to hydrate," said Juliann Sum, Cal/OSHA chief, in a statement.
Employers should remind workers of the importance of staying hydrated and ensure they have easy access to drinking water at the worksite."
Online information on heat illness prevention requirements and training materials are available on Cal/OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention web page.

Triple-digit temperatures in the Southwest and West United States in the past week have already played a factor in at least two deaths, according to news reports. Because of this, Cal/OSHA is reminding employers with outdoor workers they must provide fresh water and encourage workers to stay hydrated in order to prevent heat illness. “It is tragic when someone dies of hyperthermia since in most every case it could have been prevented,” Dr. Michelle Jorden, Medical Examiner, Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office in a statement to the press. California’s Heat Illness Prevention Standard…

Three Wisconsin workers die in corn mill explosion, several more seriously injured.
An explosion at a Cambria, Wisconsin corn mill and ethanol plant Wednesday night took the life of three workers and injured nearly a dozen.
Spokesmen for the company reported that 16 workers were in the mill at the time of the explosion.
OSHA and other federal agencies have cited Didion Mills for multiple safety and environmental violations as far back as the early 2000s.
Purdue University, which tracks fatalities from grain dust explosions, reported five having occurred in the United States last year, killing two workers.
The company received no further OSHA citations thereafter.
In 2010, Didion agreed to pay $1.05 million to the Wisconsin Department of Justice to settle lawsuits that alleged the company violated state clean air and water regulations regards emissions from its plants into the air and into neighboring streams and lakes.
A month later, Democratic Governor Jim Doyle announced that Wisconsin had been awarded $14.5 million in federal stimulus money for so-called green energy projects, $5.6 million of which went to Didion Mills to significantly expand its corn milling and ethanol production.
The US Environmental Protection Agency had already referred to Didion as “a high priority violator” that had violated the federal Clean Water Act many times in 2008-2009, using excessive amounts of chlorine and other chemicals that found their way into water systems nearby.
When Didion Mills applied for the corn gas stimulus package, US officials overseeing the grants did not ask about previous environmental or OSHA safety violations.