City Fort Contracting LLC

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City Fort

Contracting LLC

Heat Stress Prevention Rev: 00

Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series OHSAS-HSP/CFC/01

Heat Stress Prevention

Approvals

The signatures below certify that this procedure has been reviewed and accepted, and demonstrates that the signatories are aware of all the requirements contained herein and are committed to ensuring their provision.

Name Signatu

re Positio

n Date

Prepared By Reviewed By Approved By

Amendment Record

This procedure reviewed to ensure its continuing relevance to the systems and process that it describes. A record of contextual additions or omissions is given below:

Page

No. Context Revision Date

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City Fort

Contracting LLC

1. PURPOSE

The purpose of this procedure is to provide an effective Heat Stress Prevention Program to reduce and control the hazards of heat stress in the workplace.

2. DEFINITIONS

a) Heat Rash – Heat rash, also known as prickly heat, may occur in hot, humid environments where sweat in not easily removed from the surface of the skin by evaporation. This is common when using protective equipment especially impermeable clothing. Heat rash can become uncomfortable when extensive or complicated in infection.

b) Heat Cramps – Heat cramps, which are painful muscle spasms, are caused when workers fail to replace the body’s salt loss that occurs during excessive perspiration (especially with non-acclimatized workers).

c) Heat Exhaustion – Heat exhaustion results from excessive loss of salt and/or water through sweating. The worker with heat exhaustion still sweats, but experiences extreme fatigue, weakness, giddiness, nausea or headache. The skin is clammy and moist, the complexion pale or flushed and the body temperature normal or slightly higher.

d) Heat Stroke – Heat stroke, the most serious health problem for workers in hot environments, is caused by the failure of the body’s internal mechanism to regulate its core temperature. Sweating stops and the body can no longer rid itself of excess heat. Signs include: mental confusion, delirium, loss of consciousness, convulsions or coma, a body temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit or higher and hot dry skin which may be red and flushed. Victims of heat stroke may die unless treated promptly and correctly.

3. RESPONSIBILITIES

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City Fort

Contracting LLC

i. It shall be the responsibility of the Company Operations Manager to ensure that the requirements of this Procedure are adhered to.

ii. It shall be the responsibility of the Site Supervisor to ensure that all employees comply with the requirements of this procedure.

iii. It shall be the responsibility of the Safety Manager to ensure that the requirements of this procedure are implemented, monitor conformance to these requirements and provide management with feedback on noncompliance issues and methods for improvement.

iv. All Company employees shall be responsible for adhering to this procedure.

4. IDENTIFYING HAZARDS

If you know the symptoms of heat stress, you can keep those symptoms from getting out of hand. The symptoms that indicate heat stress symptoms can also be symptoms of other health problems. But if it is hot and you are getting a workout, heat stress is probably your prime hazard.

HEAT STRESS SYMPTOMS

 Dizziness

 Rapid heartbeat

 Nausea

 Cramps

 Headache

 Dry skin (you're not sweating)

 Chest pain

 Breathing problems

 Great weakness

 Diarrhea HEAT STROKE

Even worse are these signs of heatstroke, assume that any of these symptoms mean a serious problem:

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City Fort

Contracting LLC

 High temperature

 Hot red skin

 Rapid pulse SKIN CANCER

 One half is different from the other

 There are different colors

 The border is irregular

 It seems to be growing

PROTECTION AGAINST HAZARDS

As with any hazards, the best way to deal with heat hazards is to try to prevent them.

 Dress for conditions. Lightweight, light-colored loose clothing is the best.

Wear a hat with a wide brim if you are out in the sun. Put sunscreen on exposed body parts.

 Eat a regular, well-balanced diet, but try to stay away from hot or heavy food. Watch your salt consumption. Some people take salt tablets to replace the salt lost in perspiration when it is hot. But too much salt can be bad for you, so don't take salt tablets without a doctor's recommendation.

 Drink plenty of fluids. Don't wait until you are thirsty, but the time you are thirsty dehydration has already started. Your body is sweating out a lot of fluid, and you have to keep replacing it. The best thing to drink is water. Avoid anything with caffeine or alcohol.

 Use sunscreen outside and cover as much of your body with clothing as possible.

 Build up your exposure to the sun slowly. Try to stay in the shade or inside between 1p.m. and 3 p.m. when the sun is strongest.

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City Fort

Contracting LLC

 You can get sunburned in cloudy weather. And sun is even more potent when it is reflected off water, concrete, or sand.

HEAT STRESS PROCEDURES

Heat Stress is the result of the combination of several factors; the following factors should be evaluated to determine the potential for heat stress:

 Ambient temperature

 Humidity

 Type of work required (heavy, moderate or light work)

 Required work clothing

 Employee conditioning and/or acclimatization

 Previous project experience or history PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Heat stress is the combination of environmental and physical work factors that constitute the total heat load imposed on the body. One of the best ways to reduce heat stress on workers is to minimize the amount of heat in the workplace. However, there are some work environments where heat production is difficult to control, such as active steam lines, high ambient temperature processes, humid work areas, or radiant heat from the sun or process equipment. However, most heat related health problems can be prevented or the risk of developing them reduced. When unacceptable levels of heat stress can potentially occur, there are generally five approaches to a solution.

 Modify the environment

 Modify the clothing or equipment

 Modify the work practices

 Modify the worker by heat acclimatization

 Modify production with a work/rest regiment ENGINEERING CONTROLS

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City Fort

Contracting LLC

Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series OHSAS-HSP/CFC/01 A variety of engineering controls, including ventilation and spot cooling at points of heat production may be helpful. Shielding may be required as protection from radiant heat sources. Evaporative cooling and mechanical refrigeration are other ways to reduce heat by engineering controls. The use of extra air movers can be added to increase the turnover rate of interior air and remove heat inside enclosures. Cooling fans can increase air velocity and promote evaporation in hot conditions. Shutting down hot process or feed lines is most effective, but equipment modifications, such as using mechanical equipment over manual labor also reduce the exposure.

Auxiliary cooling systems can range from simple ice vest, pre frozen and worn under the clothing, to more complex systems; however, cost of operation and maintenance vary considerable in all of these systems. Four auxiliary cooling systems presently available are:

 Water-cooled garments, such as water-cooled vest, undergarments, hoods, etc., which requires a circulating pump, liquid container and a battery.

 Air-cooled garments, such as suits and hoods, that require a vortex tube, connecting hose and a constant source of compressed air;

 Ice pack vest, which although frozen before worn, do not provide continuous regulated cooling and require the use of backup frozen units ever 2 to 3 hours; and

 Wetted over-garments, which can be as simple as wet cotton terry cloth overalls worn over protective clothing; the wetted over garment works best when there is air blowing across the wet garment to increase evaporation.

WORK PLACES

Work practices can help reduce the risk of heat disorders. Making plenty of drinking water available at the workplace and urging workers to drink often shall be standard practice in all situations of potential heat stress. In high heat stress environments, an employee can lose as much as one quart of liquid per hour.

When possible and especially during acclimatization, products that have been formulated to replace electrolytes and match the weight of the body fluids lost

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City Fort

Contracting LLC

Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series OHSAS-HSP/CFC/01 by the sweating process should be used. This is necessary to enable the body to quickly absorb replacement minerals. Do not use salt tablets.

Training supervisors to recognize and be able to correctly treat heat stress disorders is absolutely essential. Prospective worker’s physical conditions should also be considered when determining their fitness for working in a hot environment. Older workers, obese workers, and those workers taking some type of medication are usually at a greater risk.

ACCLIMATIZATION

Acclimatization to heat through short exposures followed by longer periods of work in the hot environment can reduce heat stress. New employees and workers returning from an absence of two weeks or more should have a five- day period of acclimatization. This period should begin with a less than normal workload and time exposure on the first day and gradually build up to normal workload and exposure on the fifth day.

WORK/REST REGIMEN

There are many times when engineering and other controls are not sufficient, and administrative controls must be instituted for worker protection. One effective administrative control is the work/rest regiment that limits the time worked in the hot environment according to the type of work, environmental conditions, and clothing requirements. Work/rest periods are generally conservative because they are:

 Based on calculated approximations of heat stress

 Designed to protect most workers. As a result, many acclimatized workers can work longer than the allotted time period.

Alternating work and rest periods with longer rest periods in a cool area (77 f.

or less) can help workers avoid heat stress. Keep in mind that poor physical condition will also impair the ability to work in a hot environment. Older, over- weight individuals or those in poor health may not be able to follow average work/rest regimens. Supervisors shall permit employees to take additional rest breaks, as needed in potential heat stress conditions. City Fort Contracting Safety Department should be contacted for assistance in instituting work/rest schedules for the site.

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City Fort

Contracting LLC

EMPLOYEE TRAINING

For both employees and supervisory personnel, heat stress training is the key to avoiding problems. Employees must understand the reasons for using appropriate work places in order for the program to succeed. A heat stress- training program for employees shall cover the following:

 Heat stress, it components and effects

 Signs and symptoms of heat disorder

 First-aid procedures for and potential health effects of heat stress

 Pre-disposing factors to heat stress; drug use,

 Protective clothing, equipment and its impact in hot environments

 Environmental and medical surveillance programs

 Importance of maintaining body fluids at normal levels

 Various engineering controls to reduce the impact of hot environments

 Administrative measures such as work/rest regimens in use to prevent heat stress

 Acclimatization; how it is achieved and its limitations

 The components of the heat stress prevention program TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

In some situations, we will accept work in extremely hot environments that cannot be controlled or mitigated. When faced with this type of situation City Fort Contracting Safety Department shall be notified for assistance as soon as possible to ensure all appropriate means to prevent Heat Stress are taken.