Photo credit: furbychan on Flickr
Summer really is coming – despite all the rain we’ve had in BC – and with it comes the risk of heat-related illness.
3M is offering a free info session for employers on monitoring heat stress. I found out about it from a contact at the Canadian Society of Safety Engineers and thought you might like to know about it.
Heat Stress Monitoring a “Best Practices Approach” is Thurs, June 28 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Executive Inn Burnaby, including info on “the potential risks of heat stress, how to detect key environmental factors that can contribute to heat stress, and how to establish a heat stress management program.”
To find out more, I got in touch with Frank Walsh, from 3M’s Occupational Health and Environmental Safety Division. He’s the marketing operations manager for Hearing, Head, and Face Protection – and I asked him three questions.
1) What will people get out of the session?
“In many places across Canada our environment seems to be getting warmer and more humid,” Frank said, via email. “Through this seminar health and safety professionals will develop an understanding of heat stress and its symptoms. This understanding will be helpful in identifying the risks of high temperatures, in learning how to measure heat stress, and in developing a program to mitigate the risks.”
2) Why should employers and safety pros attend?
“Many organizations might have workers that are exposed to high temperatures either due to the weather or due to the job that they have to perform. These employers have a legal duty to protect their workers from hazardous heat. The best first step is a thorough understanding of the issue,” Frank said.
3) Why does 3M believe in sharing this knowledge?
“3M’s Occupational Health and Environmental Safety Division works to help organizations protect their workers much as our own company does for our workers in our many manufacturing sites across Canada and around the world,” Frank said.
“Our motto is to be ‘The Power to Protect Your World’ and a significant part of that is through education and training. Whether it’s a seminar such as this one or a quick demonstration on something like how to wear earplugs properly, it’s all about keeping workers safe.”
More info on heat-related illness
Heat-related illness from HealthLinkBC
Heat Stress web portal from NIOSH
Tips for Public Safety Employees Working Safely in the Heat from the National Athletic Trainers Association
Exercise-Related Heat Illness from the HealthyChildren.org
Heat safety awareness from Blog4Safety.com sponsored by TASCO
Preventing heat stress at work (English) is available from WorkSafeBC, with versions available in Chinese, Punjabi, Spanish, and more.
