Health and Safety ReportVolume 4, Issue 7 - July 2006

If you're a landscaper, lifeguard or construction worker, you've probably noticed those envious looks from passers-by who are admiring your tan. However, every summer sun and heat are responsible for a number of serious illnesses among outdoor workers. The hot sun should be considered more of an occupational hazard than a job perk.

Your body has a complex, ingenious system that maintains its ideal temperature of 37ºC (99º F). When factors such as hot weather and muscle exertion produce heat, your body regulates its own temperature by allowing you to sweat, and moving air helps to cool you down. In extreme temperatures or under prolonged work periods however, the body may no longer be able to cool itself and your health may be at risk.

Failure to sweat is a symptom of heat stroke, a serious and potentially fatal illness. Symptoms can vary from person to person however anyone with dry, hot skin, and increased body temperature over 41C (106º F) could be suffering heat stroke and needs immediate medical help.

Complete or partial loss of consciousness, disorientation and confusion are also symptoms of heat stroke. Heat hyperplexia, another serious heat-related illness, has similar symptoms except that the skin remains moist.

Extreme heat can also bring on heat exhaustion, which occurs when the body becomes dehydrated as a result of excessive sweating. The symptoms of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, weakness, dizziness, visual disturbances, intense thirst, nausea, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle cramps, breathlessness, palpitations, tingling and numbness of the hands and feet.

People who are experiencing heat-related illness - particularly heat stroke - often don't recognize their own symptoms. It is therefore important that co-workers know how to detect symptoms, and that they immediately seek first aid and medical help.

Hot temperatures are not the only summer hazard. We can't forget to take into account the effect of air temperature and relative humidity and the need to reduce the strenuousness of the work in extreme heat conditions. Be mindful, also, not to catch too many of those rays. Too much sun exposure can cause vision disorders, sunburns, and skin cancer.

The sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays cause skin cancer by altering skin cells. Tans and sunburns are both signs that UV rays have damaged the skin. If you have been overexposed to the sun, it's important to check your skin every few months for irregularities such as sore ulcers, a scaly patch on the skin, a white patch on the lips that doesn't heal, or moles that grow quickly, change shape or colour, or bleed repeatedly. See a doctor if you see these or any skin condition that doesn't heal.

Though it's important to recognize the symptoms of skin cancer and heat-related illness, it is safer to prevent exposures in the first place. How can outdoor workers minimize the effects of the sun and heat?

KEEP YOUR COOL

Even when you're braving the heat for most of your workday, there are ways to protect yourself from overheating, burns, and other health risks.

Avoid the sun. Though this isn't always possible, it is safer to avoid working in the sun between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., when the sun's rays are the most intense. If you can, plan to work outdoors in early morning or late afternoon. When you must work in the sun, try to work in the shade as much as possible.

Become acclimatized. It sometimes takes six to seven days for the body to fully adapt to working in the heat. If you're new to the job, or not accustomed to your thermal environment, don't take on strenuous activities too soon. Ease into your tasks gradually.

Take frequent breaks. Outdoor workers need frequent breaks in a cool or well-ventilated area, to get out of the sun and heat.

Stay hydrated. Whether or not you feel thirsty, it is extremely important to drink plenty of water, frequently, to replace the fluids you lose by working in the heat. Avoid consuming caffeine or alcohol, which can dehydrate you.

Wear protective clothing and sunglasses. Protect your eyes with sunglasses that are UV rated. The wrap-around type offers the most protection. Cover up as much as possible. A wide-brim hat and loose-fitting clothes made of a light, breathable fabric, are recommended. Though it may be tempting to work in the sun without a shirt or hat on, the sun will dry your sweat too quickly and prevent it from cooling the body. Clothes give sweat a chance to cool you down and protect you from harmful UV rays.

Wear sunscreen as extra protection. Cover any exposed, uncovered skin with sunscreen. Do not rely on sunscreen, however, as your main source of protection. Use it in addition to, not instead of, working in shade and wearing suitable clothing, hats and sunglasses. Sunscreens are not intended to extend your exposure time to sunlight, but rather to reduce the sun's effects. Apply sunscreen 20 or 30 minutes before you will be exposed to the sun. Wipe it generously onto the skin, but don't rub it in. Choose a sunscreen that blocks both UV-B and UV-A rays and has a SPF of at least 15 or higher. Reapply it every two hours, especially after strenuous exercise or when your skin is wet.

Have an emergency plan. In a heat-related emergency, quick action could save a life. Employers should have an emergency plan in place for providing timely first aid and medical care.

Here in the Great White North, we're delighted when the sun and heat return for a few precious months. By applying these safe work practices you can enjoy the season, and be healthy and safe - at work and at play.

Additional Resources:

More about health effects of hot environments from CCOHS

Health and Safety Guide: Working in Hot Environments

Groundskeepers Safety Guide

Walk? Dogs wag their tails at the mere mention of the word. People, on the other hand, often take for granted this activity that is so good for the body, mind and soul.

Fitness and health don't always require drastic measures. Walking can do wonders. It reduces the risk of coronary disease and stroke. It lowers blood pressure and reduces cholesterol levels in blood. It helps prevent osteoporosis by increasing bone density, and helps manage the negative effects of osteoarthritis. It even eases back pain.

Walking also helps with weight management. A 30-minute walk covers a distance of 2.0 to 2.5 km and burns about 125 calories. A routine of five of these walks per week would burn 32,000 calories within one year - that's 5 kg of fat!

If you're ready to start a walking routine, the following tips will help:

Good posture. To get the best out of walking, keep your head and spine straight. Look straight ahead, while paying attention to the ground in case of obstacles. Relax your shoulders and arms, letting them swing naturally.

Breathe easy. While you walk, your breath should be regular, steady, and not too shallow. Don't hold your breath, and don't force yourself to breathe deeply.

Choose a comfortable tempo. Walk slowly for the first five minutes to warm up, then gradually work up to your desired cruising speed. Slow down for 3 to 5 minutes to cool down at the end of your walk.

Set a routine. To enjoy the cumulative effects of walking, do it every day. Remember that the longer you break between walks, the lower the cumulative effects will be.

Walking shouldn't hurt. If you feel any pain, either check that you're wearing the proper footwear or consult a medical or fitness expert.

Walking doesn't require any fancy gear. All you need are comfortable clothing suitable for the weather conditions, and a good pair of walking shoes. There are specialty walking shoes on the market, but any shoes you can comfortably walk in for an extended time will do.

Once walking becomes a regular part of your daily fitness regimen, it will improve the quality of your life and may even improve your longevity. Take a tip from Fido: love your walks.

For further details on walking, including how to select the appropriate clothing and footwear, please visit OSH Answers.

Could the nine-to-five workweek become a thing of the past? Changing labour markets and social responsibilities are causing employers and employees to seek more flexible arrangements in terms of how, when and where they work. A new program in the UK is promoting alternate approaches to work, as a benefit to businesses and their employees alike.

Work Wise UK is a not-for-profit initiative to make the UK the most progressive economy in the world by encouraging smarter working practices. It encourages the adoption of flexible working, remote working, mobile working, working from home and promotion of a work-life balance, to the benefit of business, employees and the country as a whole.

Work Wise UK will provide a central information service for the UK workforce and disseminate key information and best practices throughout the initial three-year program. Organised by the IT Forum Foundation, Work Wise UK is a joint venture that brings together UK society, including the public and private sectors, professional bodies and trade unions.

There are various ways to work smarter, according to Work Wise UK. Businesses, organisations and workers in any sector might benefit from some of these alternative approaches.

Allowing flexible working hours, for example, enables staff to arrive or leave at different times. This could mean "flexitime," where an employee chooses how weekly or annual hours are worked; "flexiworking," where the employee works overtime and then takes that time off in lieu; or "condensed hours," where the employee condenses the week's work hours into four days and takes the fifth day off.

Allowing staff to work at home, or in Internet cafes, satellite offices or other alternative locations is another "smart work" approach that Work Wise UK will encourage. The number of people who work mainly in their own home, or in different places using home as a base, is currently known to be 3.1 million out of 28.76 million in the UK, or 11 percent of the total workforce, according to National Statistics for October, 2005. Work Wise UK believes this can be extended to 50 percent of the workforce within five years.

According to the Work Wise UK website, the UK workforce is currently among the hardest working in the world. Three-quarters of employees regularly work overtime, yet only a third of those employees are rewarded with extra pay or time off in lieu. One in six employees works more than 60 hours a week, and nearly five million worked, on average, an extra day every week in unpaid overtime in 2005.

Work Wise UK will continue to develop and provide an information source for UK citizens wanting to experience the benefits of working smarter and living better.

For further information, visit www.workwiseuk.org/.

Barn air also contains particulates from animal dander, mouldy hay and crops, bacteria, viruses and other biological material. Exposure can cause asthma, allergic reactions, viral and bacteriological infections, and other conditions such as Toxic Organic Dust Syndrome and Farmer's Lung. Zoonotic diseases are infectious diseases that may be transferred from animals to people. Most recently, we have heard about Avian flu in Europe and Asia being transferred to people from sick chickens.

Confined spaces such as manure pits and silos contain hazardous gases that are biologically generated (e.g., from decomposing manure). Irritant gases, such as ammonia, can affect the eyes, nose and lungs. Asphyxiants, such as carbon dioxide and methane, can displace enough oxygen to suffocate a person. Methane is also an extremely flammable gas. Other gases are toxic because they interfere with the body's ability to function normally. Exposure to toxic gases, such as hydrogen sulphide or carbon monoxide, can be fatal.

Prevention

The best way to protect workers from exposure to workplace hazards is by designing the facility in a way that restricts exposure or reduces the hazard. For example, prevent the growth of mould in hay and crops by providing good air circulation or by storing wet hay in silos. Adequate ventilation is also very important for manure pits, as well. However, this is not always practical in all farm operations - safe work procedures and the use of personal protective equipment can be effective.

In workplaces where airborne particulates cannot be adequately controlled, workers should wear respiratory protection that is appropriate to the hazard. A disposable dust mask may be suitable in light dust conditions. For dustier conditions where the particulates are clearly visible in the air, workers should instead wear a respirator with an effective seal around its perimeter, to prevent any particulates from entering the breathing zone.

In case of hazardous gases in silos and manure pits, get a professional opinion on the appropriate respiratory protection. Remember that in an oxygen-deficient environment (for example, in a manure pit or silo), only a self-contained breathing apparatus or supplied air respirator will provide protection - a chemical cartridge respirator will not.

Read the bulletin from Manitoba Labour and Immigration Work Safe site


For more information on hazards and confined space safety on farms, read brochures from Saskatchewan Labour and the Farm Safety Association

Workers have a legal right to know how workplace chemicals can affect their health and safety. Employers are legally responsible to make that information readily available, by giving employees full access to a current material safety data sheet (MSDS) for every controlled product on the job site.

An MSDS lists important information about a chemical product, such as first aid recommendations in case of exposure, health hazards, fire and reactivity hazards, personal protection required, spill and disposal procedures, and recommendations for storage and handling.

As chemical suppliers and manufacturers send their MSDSs to your organization, it can become quite a chore to keep the data sheets current and organized and accessible to your workers. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) introduces a way to simplify the task of managing the MSDSs in your collection and make them easily accessible 24/7, to the people who need them. The MSDS Management Service from CCOHS is designed to help you manage your occupational health and safety responsibilities relating to MSDSs, right-to-know requirements under health and safety law, and hazard communication.

As you send your electronic and/or hard copy MSDSs to the service, CCOHS staff will add them to your company's own personal, customized MSDS collection. By logging on to the Internet you can access your collection at any time and easily locate the most up-to-date MSDSs. Find the MSDS you're looking for within seconds, searching by product name, manufacturer/supplier, or date range.

The service is an ideal tool for MSDS managers, safety professionals, compliance officers, emergency preparedness staff, health & safety committee members, warehousing, shipping, receiving, and storage personnel, and materials management purchasing agents. CCOHS will set up your collection, which will be organized however you want it (by department/location, etc.).

You get unlimited online access to your custom collections as well as to CCOHS' entire MSDS database. As your collection is updated, you will receive monthly notifications by email. The MSDS management is an ongoing service - as you receive new MSDSs, just send them to CCOHS to have them added to your collection, and let us keep them current. CCOHS works on your behalf to obtain and process updated MSDS from your suppliers to keep your custom collection up to date.

A set of hard copies of your collection is provided in binders as part of the service. Your subscription also includes several resources to help you to use and understand MSDSs, including a series of publications from CCOHS, as well as the CHEMINFO database, an internationally recognized safety resource on chemical hazards and safe handling in the workplace.

The MSDS Management Service is backed by a team of specialists with more than 25 years of experience in managing and maintaining large collections of MSDS. Having an up-to-date collection of MSDSs will help keep you in compliance with Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG), environmental regulations and other laws pertaining to hazardous materials.

More information on the MSDS Management Service