California Agriculture Industry Self Insured Groups Urge Agricultural Employers to Feel the Heat.

ONTARIO, Calif. -- On April 19, 2006, California's occupational safety and health officials at Cal/OSHA are expected to make permanent the emergency Heat Illness prevention safety workplace standards put in place as an emergency measure last September. Even before Cal/OSHA acted, Self Insured Solutions (http://www.calsig.com/), an administrator of private agricultural-industry self insured groups, had publicly urged all agricultural employers to recognize and implement this new standard, and to start training workers before the dog days of summer settle in.

"Responding to an unprecedented wave of deaths in California during a prolonged heat wave last year, Cal/OSHA put in place an emergency regulation designed to protect outdoor workers," Self Insured Solutions' Joe Wheeler explained. Wheeler oversees the safety and loss control efforts of four self insured workers comp groups in California's high-risk agricultural industry. "We trained hundreds of workers last year to recognize and respond to -- and avoid -- Heat Illness, and will do even more this year to help our members meet the new requirement."

Heat Illness is a serious medical condition resulting from the body's inability to cope with a particular heat load. Symptoms include heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat syncope (fainting due to low blood pressure) and heat stroke. In extreme cases, Heat Illness can be life-threatening, especially to outdoor workers who do not take appropriate care to avoid the problem -- or to treat early-onset symptoms of Heat Illness.

After investigating more than a dozen on-the-job heat-related deaths in California last year, Wheeler said that Cal/OSHA discovered several simple, yet effective ways, to help employers protect workers from Heat Illness:

Acclimatization 

Cal/OSHA discovered that of the 25 reported hospitalizations for heat stress, one-third of the affected workers were on the job for a single day. Fully 80 percent of those who died had been on the job less than four days.

"Acclimatization, the simple process of getting one's body used to working in heat, has long been known to be an important factor in Heat Illness prevention, but last summer put it near the top of the list for future prevention efforts," Wheeler said. "We're helping our members -- agricultural employers throughout California -- to recognize the problem, and to train new workers to look for the signs and symptoms of heat-related illness."

Drink Lots of Water

Workers who went many hours without drinking water were much more at-risk than those who drank small amounts of water throughout the day. "The new standard calls for employers to provide cool drinking water, and enough of it for each worker to have one quart per employee per hour worked," Wheeler said. "That's a lot of water to have all at once, so fortunately the standard allows employers to replenish supplies throughout the day."

Know the Symptoms

Several workers perished after suffering the disorientation that often comes with Heat Illness. Tragically, neither these workers -- nor their on-the-job companions -- recognized the signs that something was terribly wrong. At least not until it was too late. "The new regs call for employers to train workers on the symptoms of Heat Illness," Wheeler said. "It's vital that everyone on outdoor job sites, such as are found in California's agricultural industries that we represent, know what to expect if the temperature climbs above 100 again."

Emergency Response

Sadly, one worker died because the emergency responders, faced with acres of crops and no visible landmarks in sight, simply could not locate the worker in time. "The new rules call for each employer to have an Emergency Action Plan in which workers and supervisors know what to do in the event of heat-related illness," Wheeler explains. "The ubiquitous, 'Call 911,' won't cut it any longer. There must be an established methodology for getting emergency responders to the scene."

With offices in Ontario, Self Insured Solutions (http://www.calsig.com) is one of California's most successful developers and administrators of private self-insured workers' compensation groups (SIGs).

Self Insured Solutions offers hands-on safety services to members of California Agricultural Network (www.cansig.com), California Farm Management (www.cfmsig.com), California AG Products (www.calcapsig.com) and California Livestock Producers (www.clpsig.com), as well as California Contractors Network, a self-insured group serving the building and construction industry (www.ccnsig.com).

Each of these self insured workers' comp groups is managed by Self Insured Solutions, and -- with the exception of CCNSIG, which serves the construction industry -- each exclusively serves one segment of California's multi-billion dollar agricultural industry.

For more information on these emergency regulations, or on the California Agricultural Network Self Insured Group -- or to interview Joe Wheeler, please contact Ned Barnett -- 702-696-1200 or [e-mail].