Episode 182: Summer Time.

The episode of the Leading and Learning Through Safety podcast, hosted by Dr. Mark French, centers on the pressing issue of summer safety, particularly heat stress and seasonal workplace hazards. Dr. French emphasizes the growing concern over heat-related illnesses due to rising temperatures across the U.S. He highlights ongoing OSHA hearings aiming to implement enforceable standards around heat stress, including rest breaks, hydration, acclimatization, and emergency response plans. While some argue the proposed rules are a one-size-fits-all approach, French stresses that many companies already exceed these baseline protections—and that the real issue is often a lack of enforcement or awareness.

He shares a personal anecdote about carnival workers suffering from heat exhaustion due to delayed safety measures, underlining the human cost of inaction. Beyond heat, the episode discusses summertime hazards such as roadwork risks, fall protection for tree-trimmers and landscapers, and trenching dangers in construction. French calls on both employers and the public to take proactive steps: employers must ensure PPE is appropriate for hot weather, provide thorough safety training for seasonal workers, and prepare for increased workloads; the public must stay alert around roadside workers to prevent accidents.

Ultimately, French urges leaders to anticipate seasonal risks, bolster training and supplies, and foster a safety culture where early warning signs are recognized and acted upon. His message is clear: summer brings recurring hazards, and preparation—not surprise—is key to preventing injuries and saving lives.

Transcript

Mark French: 0:01

This week on the leading and learning through safety podcast, we're going to talk about the summer season. It feels like it's already here in most of the US, there's a lot of hazards out there and a lot of items we can be doing as leaders to protect our people. This week on the podcast, you

Announcer: 0:35

foreign. Welcome to the leading and learning through safety podcast. Your host is Dr Mark French. Mark's passion is helping organizations motivate their teams. This podcast is focused on bringing out the best in leadership through creating strong values, learning opportunities, teamwork and safety. Nothing is more important than protecting your people, safety creates an environment for empathy, innovation and empowerment. Together, we'll discover meaning and purpose through shaping our safety culture. Thanks for joining us this episode and now here is Dr Mark French,

Mark French: 1:31

much. Welcome to this episode of the leading and learning through safety podcast. So happy you've joined me. Welcome as always. Thank you for allowing me to be part of your podcast rotation. Downloaded right to you, and thank you for that. This week, a lot of information and news and items happening that just remind us that the summer season is upon us. May not be fully summer yet, but this past week, across most of the US, it has felt like it very strongly felt like it heat waves hitting everywhere. It was unbelievable to me that I can travel from Texas back home to Kentucky and up to Massachusetts, and it was hot everywhere. It was just a matter of where was the worst heat advisory that was in effect for that, for that location, and it, it's everywhere I've went. I've taken the heat with me and brought it back home again. I think it's evidently that's just me bringing it around. But let's talk a little bit about heat stress the OSHA hearings have started with OSHA is trying to enact the heat stress, some form of a heat stress program for for indoor and outdoor workplaces. And the public hearings have been going as kind of expected thus far, and the typical arguments that happen. And those of us who have been leading in and been in safety and even just been around it, we know heat stress is a problem. We know you can acclimate. We also know the science behind it that says that once you've been affected by heat stress or heat stroke, it's more likely to happen again that there's certain things you can do with rest, water and shade. It has to do with air flow and direct sun and how much humidity, all those things. And I believe it was last year that actually there was a court hearing where someone won against OSHA. They had cited a general duty clause. Don't quote me on this exactly. I remembering vaguely, there was a citation for general duty for heat stress. They argued that the heat stress by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. No one the National Weather Service that their heat stress guide was not based in some sort of science or wasn't correctly attributed, and that got released because of that. That's how they won the case. And so where it moves is that OSHA needs to actually propagate a law. We need to create the law to protect people from the heat, which is wild, that we have to do that and we're not just giving the right things to people to be safe, he's a tough thing to judge, because people want to work in most cases, what I have seen is even in the cases where companies have a very good policy of taking breaks, of resting, there's a general desire of people to work hard, and so they continue to push and continue to work, and that's what leads to it. There are some on the other side. There are some companies who give 00 cares and just punish their people. And a lot of outdoor workers have that happen to them on. Fortunately, farmers and those out in the fields, that's the work they do, and sometimes it's not proper. And I've told the story so many times of where my wife and I were at a carnival, and she was setting up her pottery booth, and I was just helping in the carnival workers who were setting up the rides for this festival. It was blazing hot, like again, it was one of those situations where it was probably record breaking. Record breaking heat in that area, and it before they brought out the coolers full of water, someone had to have an ambulance called because they were having a heat stroke. It was that serious before they even thought to hand out water and give them a break of the ones working out there building this equipment or putting it together and getting it ready for the festival. That's wild, that that's what has to happen. But let's go into kind of what's happening here with some of the items is that basically of the very basics of what they're trying to put into place is that there's heat triggers, there are rest breaks. It is for 10 or more employees, typical OSHA language. There's some sort of a climatization process that you would follow training and then also emergency response plan in place to be able to recognize and help those who may be showing signs of heat related illness. Now the biggest argument against it is that it's one size fits all, and that 80 degrees or 90 degrees or 100 degrees in California may be different than in Florida versus different, in Michigan versus different, and in wherever take your pick, it could be it's one size fits all well most OSHA standards are and for a reason, and generally speaking, it's really the companies that are going to be really wanting to follow it, or are trying already, are probably already doing more than what this requires, which is Unbelievable. Most OSHA standards are that way. They're the base minimum, and we're arguing the base minimum. And we know there's some argument there, of course, but we know that heat kills there is no doubt that it creates suffering, it creates harm, it creates hurt. And there are some things that can be done now, the heat is unavoidable, and I love the story of years ago in a company, every year, in the summertime, we would put a capital project in to create more ventilation for the side, because it was really hot. And then basically summer would pass because we'd never be able to get the capital project moving that fast, and then it would drop off, because suddenly no one's complaining. And then we would get back into spring and summer, and everybody would pull their hair out and go, Oh my gosh, it's so hot. What are we going to do? And I would remind them that, well, we had this capital project, but we decided not to fund it in the in the winter, because no one was complaining or thinking about it, but we were still talking about it, but we didn't do anything. And we're acting like we're surprised that it's summer and it's hot. We can't act like that. It just oh my gosh, I can't believe it. It's hot again. Yeah, it's summer, that's what happens. And if it sneaks up on you, that's weird, because it happens every year, and it gets hot, and so what do we do? We provide more water. We tell our team to rest when they need it and where possible, where we have hands on. We take the time to pull them away and give them that break and have a cooled area or have fans going. We do what we can to control what we can, and we hope that we've given enough ability for our team to recognize when maybe someone of their peer may need some help and to attend to them before it gets serious, that when we want to prevent it as much as we can in some of it, I hate to say this, but I'm gonna make the general it's Not 100% preventable to not have some signs of heat related issues, because you could be I've done it myself where I went out and started working, and it's my own fault that the water is right there, the shade is right there, the rest is right there. I just get focused, and I need someone to remind me to come out and take that break, or I wait until I'm like, Oh man, I'm not feeling well, or I'm really sweating, or I'm something like, I'm not in heat stroke, but I'm beginning to recognize some of the early signs. Well, that's what it takes, is the flexibility and ability to have everything readily available for our team when heat comes that we're doing all we can to control it. We train. We give them the ability. We give them the items that they need to be able to catch what's going on and take that break when they need it. Sometimes it's a longer break because, okay, we need to really get rehydrated. We have the items available that people need. They're readily available right in front of them, ready to go. You. So that it's easy, as easy as it can be, to take that break and protect themselves. That's what it's about with the heat stress policies and the the processes we do, what we can, where we can, to control what we can an environment is tough to control, but we can at least have everything available. You know, let's talk a little bit more about summer. We're moving off of heat on the second half, but let's talk more about summertime safety on the next half of the leading and learning through safety podcast.

Stinger: 10:32

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Mark French: 11:19

and welcome back to the second half of the leading and learning through safety podcast this week, we're talking about summer. It comes every year, and with every year, there's hazards the next one that I want to that I've seen already, and they continue throughout the year, but it really picks up during the summertime. Is road work. And I once heard someone joke, and I forgot where state in the Northeast I was visiting, and they made the joke that in our state, we have two seasons snow and road work. Those are the two seasons we have. It's road work season, and unfortunately, there's a lot of injuries and deaths happening from people getting struck, workers on the road getting struck by vehicles, and in some of these cases, the employer has done so much to protect them. They've done the work of putting out cones and high visibility, and we as the public, and I'm putting myself in this because I commute a lot. I when I have to go to the airport, when I have to go places, I live in a very rural area, so even to go get fuel or groceries, I'm driving a decent distance. I'm commuting a lot, and with that comes the risk of people being on the side of the road, doing their work, doing their job, and me not being distracted as a driver, between driving my mini ton death machine, as you may say, and keeping aware of where they are and not letting myself swerve or Get distracted. And it's more and more so difficult, especially one that they put down the phone. Don't text and drive. Don't be distracted. See what's happening. If you see roadwork signs start slowing down, then don't be the one that has to slam on their brakes and jump over in the lane at the very last minute because you weren't preparing to merge and to slow down and to be more aware, because there's workers now on the other side, the employers. We have a lot we have to do to evaluate the risk that is out there, to follow the best guidance that we can find, keep our team clothed the right way and in the heat, finding where you're being able to find the right PPE that doesn't just overwhelm you with heat while still being antsy approved. It takes a little searching. It's it's out there, but it takes a little bit more effort than just layering up in more vests or whatever. It takes a little bit more but doing that, having the right cones, having plenty of cones, because those things get run over. They get they disappear, all the things that happen when you're using items like that, working on the stuff, putting up barricades where needed having, having a strategy in place for protecting workers when they're out there on the road, it's our responsibility. Is having workers out there to look at those things, and then we have to hope that the public, that we here's the we, again, including myself, are being aware and trying to raise enough awareness flashing lights and banners and bright orange and bright yellow that they see that we have people on the side of the road working, and this time of year we are in road work season. Please be more aware. I'm asking, if you happen to hear this, I'm sure you probably are already doing that, but maybe you can help remind someone else to just be a little bit more aware this time of. Year. Other items, a lot unfortunately, seeing more and more of your arborists, tree trimmers, lawn workers, because now things are growing and people want them to get trimmed. Fall Protection, lawn mowers not turning over, like having the seat belt, having the head guard up all the way, making sure you have the right mower, that the you're not zipping in the wrong direction up crazy hills, that you're not trying to shortcut that and have a rollover event, or making sure you have the right tools people are aware of when a limb might fall and if they're trimming trees, people below you, under where you're working, under the bucket, there's a lot of extra work that goes into some of the summertime jobs that come around every year, this time of year, that we as safety professionals, as leaders, we have to be aware that we need to spend extra time talking about them, talking about the fact that we're going to be doing more of this. We're going to see more in most cases, like with seasonal workers, you're going to bring in more people, and have to train them and bring them up to speed quickly with the safety procedures, with the safety policies to make sure the work is done, especially like the outdoor jobs that come with tree trimming and lawnscaping and all those wonderful things that come with having summer and growth and farm workers taking care of them in the same way as they're going out and doing that work in the summer providing again, we're back on heat again a little bit providing those items. The the other one is a lot of with construction, there also comes, as typical, a lot of trenching. And with trenching comes so many hazards. There is a process and a way to make it as safe as you can make it. But unfortunately, with a lot of this, where I see the deaths and fatalities being the ones where nothing was done, where we the organization, didn't take any precautions, didn't help in any way, to train, prepare, take the time to do it right. And here where I live, there's been tons and tons of rain, and now it's just blazing hot, so it's difficult. The soil conditions are not really great anyway, but even more so for trenching. And so we have to take the precautions. So as you look at what's happening and going on in your world as a leader, as a safety person, take an extra look at what are the things that come around every summer, and are we prepared for it? Have we beefed up our inventory? Are we prepared for what already seems to be here? But what can we do more to make our team aware, prepare them for the hazards, and ultimately, maybe help save a life, because we were able to get ahead of it and talk about it. Thanks for joining me on this episode of the leading and learning through safety podcast. My thanks for having me as part of your podcast rotation as we go into summer, watch out for those workers. Prepare our team. Be ready for all the new people. Have a good training process in place. You know, we give it the best we can. We're never perfect, but we're always striving to get just a little bit better in how we engage that team. Hope you have a great whatever is coming next in this hot summer, take care of yourself and until next time we chat, stay safe.

Announcer: 19:01

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