Just months after sweeping regulations were put in place to limit the effect of scorching heat on farm and construction workers, a host of other California employers are bracing for possible regulations on heat indoors.
Late last month, representatives of manufacturers, warehouse operators, commercial laundries and kitchens faced off with labor advocates, lawyers and community activists over the prospect of stringent regulations to control the impact of high temperatures in workplaces.
“We are definitely not excited about the prospect of indoor heat regulations,” said Jason Schmelzer, lobbyist with the California Manufacturers and Technology Association in Sacramento. “There is such a variation of circumstances and conditions for indoor employers that such an onerous regulation that treats everyone the same simply won’t work. It will be a huge burden.”
Employers have fought off previous attempts at indoor heat regulations in the past 20 years. But this time, things may be different.
When emergency outdoor heat regulations were established in late 2005 after a series of heat-related deaths of farmworkers in the Central Valley, the Schwarzenegger administration pledged to revisit the issue of indoor heat regulation.
What’s more, during this summer’s record-shattering heat wave, at least two workers died while working inside, lending even more momentum for regulation.
While some regulation may be inevitable, what shape it will take is far from certain.
“It would be safe to say there was not much consensus on how to proceed, with management and labor on opposite sides of this issue,” said Len Walsh, acting chief of the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which hosted the workshop as it mulls an indoor heat standard.
Worker advocates say they want a sweeping regulation that requires all indoor workplaces to have adequate ventilation and a series of required measures,such as work slowdowns and more frequent breaks,when indoor temperatures cross a certain threshold.
“There are workers who are equally at risk of death indoors as outdoors from excessive heat,” said Fran Schreiberg, executive director of WorkSafe, a coalition of labor, community activists and occupational health and safety professionals.
In warehouses in some of the state’s hotter inland valleys, indoor temperatures can exceed outdoor temperatures, according to Schreiberg. Many facilities lack air conditioning or ventilation, she said.
Schmelzer conceded that some facilities may need regulation, with a focus on training. But a “one-size-fits-all” approach would place tremendous burdens on employers, he said.
“Take a steel mill, where there can be five or even 10 different microclimates inside the facility,” he said. “If you require monitoring of the entire facility, the employer would have to go around to each microclimate, not just where the problem is most severe.”
Also, he said, requiring water to be at the worksite may not be appropriate for high-tech clean rooms where contamination of sensitive electronic components might take place.
Cal-OSHA’s Walsh said another meeting is set to take place early next year. The agency should have a proposed regulation on the table by the middle of 2007, he said.
Get the Lead Out
Starting in January, many electronic devices containing certain levels of lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium and other heavy metals will be banned from sale within California.
Devices such as computer monitors, laptop computers and even plasma TVs made after 2007 exceeding heavy metals standards set forth by the European Union are banned from sale in California under SB 20, the electronic component recycling bill authored by Byron Sher, D-Stanford.
In coming weeks, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control will determine whether this law will apply to products that come on the market through resale or refurbishment.
Web Site Update
For those employers who need to learn more about complying with federal government regulations, the Small Business Administration has re-launched a Web site designed to answer regulatory and compliance questions.
The site, Business.gov, has a large search box on the home page leading users to several broad categories of regulations, from environmental regulations to guidelines for federal government contracts.
The site was first launched in 2004, then focusing mostly on assisting small businesses just getting started. But after feedback from business owners around the country, the site was retooled to include compliance information from every federal government agency.
Fine is a staff writer with the Los Angeles Business Journal.
