Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Account Executive Kevin Howard talk about heat illness awareness and why it’s important for employers to make it a priority as we move into the warmer months.

Show Notes: ⁠Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter, Heat Illness Prevention Workshop

Director/Host: ⁠Alyssa Burley⁠

Guest: ⁠Kevin Howard⁠

Producer/Editor: ⁠Megan Lockhart⁠

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

Transcript

Alyssa Burley: Hi, this is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa’s Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today's top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our Safety and Risk Management Network, StudioOne™. Welcome back, everyone. My guest is Kevin Howard, Account Executive with Rancho Mesa. He specializes in commercial insurance for the solar and roofing industry. Today, we're going to talk about heat illness awareness and why it's important for employers to make it a priority as we move into the warmer months. Kevin, welcome to the show.

Kevin Howard: Good morning! Thanks for having me.

AB: Now, is this your first podcast in this studio?

KH: It is. I'm blown away. It's comfortable. Beautiful. I’m excited.

AB: Yeah, we're really excited. And I know every week we talk about the new studio, but we are really excited about it.

KH: It’s really nice.

AB: Yeah. All right, so let's get into heat illness. We're in Southern California and we know that the weather can heat up anywhere from June to October really. But heat illness is something that affects employers and employees throughout the country. Why should employers be focusing on heat illness awareness, particularly now?

KH: Great question. I think this year, more than ever, we've noticed some change in our weather patterns. I was born and raised in San Diego, and I remember June and July and August being hot and then it cooled down. It's just it's really shifted right? September and October, it's been scorching hot, especially out in East County, San Diego, and parts of Southern California.

To add to that, there's some talks about an El Nino coming which could create just a really different and extremely warm summer. Very hot summer.

AB: Yeah. So this is the perfect time to revisit heat illness prevention. Would you agree that first, recognizing the risks associated with heat illness is the first step to ensuring employees are safe on the job?

KH: Absolutely. I think it, you know, understanding the risk when it comes to heat and illness, knowing, you know, with construction companies, where are your employees vulnerable? Do we have more of a physically demanding scope of work that's going to create more of a need for shade, cool water? How much? You know, studying the Cal OSHA and the Fed OSHA laws on heat and illness. These are all important factors to make sure that we're proactive to avoid somebody, you know, having a heat stroke or even worse, having a heart attack. You know, these are key elements to making sure that we protect our employees.

AB: Yeah. And does bringing awareness to heat illness lead to or help reinforce a culture of safety within a company?

KH: Yeah, I think, you know, the culture of safety is huge. We had the fleet safety seminar last week and I think it was really eye opening as far as, is the culture of safety there to let the employees know, to let the whole family know as a team, as an employer, we care. We want everybody to go home safe at night to their families. And this is that same area. You know, if we're not taking this seriously, if we're just throwing the team out there and we're not looking at the weather report, we're not recognizing that, hey, it's going to be super hot- 103 today. What are we doing to prevent, you know, anybody getting hurt? So, yeah, it should be a top priority, to answer your question.

AB: Yeah. And how can employers improve working conditions in high heat workplaces, like when they know, ok it's going to be, you know, 100 degrees today? What can they do?

KH: I'd say number one is come to our Heat and Illness Prevention workshop. That's in June, June 2nd, Right. That'd be a great way to come and learn. You know, we're going to have that here in Mission Valley. But inside of that, providing PPE for your employees, providing shade, understanding that there should be breaks depending on the, you know, what should be modified with that workday. Engineering controls would be, is there enough shade? Do we have enough water stations? Do you need fans or misting? And then maybe even adjusting some schedules or length of shifts? Do we need to break out, you know, break up some of these work shifts so that employees can get breaks? These are all important factors when it comes to game planning that day, that week, that job site area, so that nobody gets hurt.

AB: Yeah, and that's great. And employers can make modifications to not only the work site but also the length of the shifts or if the schedule allows, even change the time of day that the work is completed to take advantage of those cooler hours. I know that in the Imperial Valley, farmers often work in the evening or early morning hours before the sun comes up. We know when the weather is actually cooler. But, so that might be an option for some employers. However, it may not be an option for others, depending on city ordinances that dictate, you know, when you can work on your construction projects. But, you know, check with the local agencies and see, you know, before you change your schedule. But, it might be an option to start work a little bit earlier when it's going to be cooler out. So what else should employers be aware of when it comes to, you know, heat, illness awareness?

KH: I'll add one more big one, is monitoring and supervising the employees. You know, if there is some extreme conditions where, you know, knowing your employee base, if there is somebody that's maybe, you know, has a higher percentage of maybe having a stroke based on demographics like age, weight, those are important factors. You know, we need to really be looking at the statistics as far as like, hey, who should we pay more close attention to? Who should take more water breaks? Like, these are all things that need to be preplanned and talked about. And that like the word awareness, we're aware of heat and illness. We're aware of what's going to be happening in these hot, hot, hot months here and coming up to 2023. And we have a game plan.

AB: Right and training employees to know the signs of heat, stress, illness, stroke, can really save a life and empowering employees to stop the job and say, hey, this employee needs help and actually take action. You know, those are all things that are critical.

KH: Yeah.

AB: So, Kevin, this was really a perfect time to talk about heat illness awareness. Like you mentioned earlier, we're hosting the Heat Illness Prevention Workshop. Again, that's going to be in Mission Valley on Friday, June 2nd. So make sure that you register for that if you're going to be in the area. We can put a link in the episode notes so people can register. It also is part of our Safety START program. So if people are looking to get certified through that, attend the workshop, take the quiz and you'll get credit for that. And it's also going to be recorded too, for those who may not be able to attend live in-person.

KH: Perfect.

AB: So Kevin, if listeners have questions about the risk management, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

KH: Yeah, thank you. You can email me at khoward@ranchomesa.com, or you can call my direct line, which is 619-438-6874.

[Outro Music]

AB: All right. Well, Kevin, thank you so much for joining me in Studio one.

KH: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Alyssa Burley: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. For more information, visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.