Latest news with #workersafety
Japan Times
19 hours ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Protect workers from heat waves or face fines, Japan tells firms
Tougher rules being enforced in Japan will see employers fined if they fail to take adequate precautions to protect workers from extreme temperatures. The revised legislation, which came into effect on Sunday, is a rare global example of a national-level policy on heat safety for employees, and comes after 30 workplace deaths and roughly 1,200 injuries last year associated with high temperatures, according to health ministry data. Most of those affected worked in construction or manufacturing. The government moved to strengthen protections following last summer's searing heat — which included the highest July temperatures on record, the ministry said in a statement. Businesses will face potential penalties including fines of ¥500,000 ($3,475) if provisions aren't sufficient. Heatstroke is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by a dangerously high body temperature that can result in severe organ damage if not treated quickly. There were almost half a million heat-related deaths annually between 2000 and 2019, according to a report last year by the World Health Organization. Along with public health impacts, higher temperatures can impact worker productivity, and there is growing concern about the economic toll that heat waves have on economies. Global average temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels for the first time in 2024, and new highs are forecast to be recorded over the next five years, according the World Meteorological Organization. Japan's legislation requires employers to implement protocols to quickly spot and aid workers showing symptoms of heatstroke. Policies encourage companies to use a buddy system at work sites, distribute wearable devices to monitor staff, and provide emergency transportation to hospitals or clinics. Employers are urged to monitor the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature index, a gauge of heat stress in direct sunlight that takes into account factors like temperature and humidity. Specific measures are required for work sites where the index value exceeds 28 C or an atmospheric temperature of 31 C for more than one hour, or for a total of four hours or more in a single day. A worker performing moderate work intensity loses half of their work capacity at 33 C to 34 C, according to a 2019 study from the International Labor Organization. The same report estimated the economic impact of heat stress by 2030 at $2.4 trillion if greenhouse gas emissions aren't cut. "We are working on measures such as taking breaks according to the heat index and measuring internal body temperature using wearable devices,' said a spokesperson for Shimizu, one of the nation's largest general contractors, which employs more than 20,000 people. The company said it is constantly updating its heatstroke policies. Parcel delivery service Yamato Transport plans to distribute 75,000 fan-equipped vests to workers, including those who use carts and bicycles to drop off packages. It is also installing 3,000 wet bulb index measuring devices at business locations to better track working conditions. The measures are not in response to the new law, the company said. California and Washington are among U.S. states to have developed similar rules on worker protections, and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed setting a federal standard. There were an average 40 recorded fatalities a year in the United States related to environmental heat between 2011 and 2020, according to the Department of Labor.
Arabian Business
a day ago
- General
- Arabian Business
Kuwait bans outdoor work between 11am and 4pm
Kuwait has introduced a ban on outdoor work during the hottest parts of the day until September. The Public Authority of Manpower (PAM) declared that work in the open is banned from 11 am until 4 pm, effective until the end of August. PAM in a statement quoted the acting director, Marzouq Al-Otaibi, as saying PAM's inspection teams would enforce the administrative resolution 535/2015 concerning the ban on working in the uncovered locations for the summer three months. Kuwait outdoor work ban He warned that the inspectors would show up unexpectedly at work sites to check on possible breaches, for recording the offenses and taking legal action against those responsible. The decision aims at protecting the workers from the scorching summer heat during this period, he said, indicating that the decision does not imply cutting the working hours. The measure was enforced over the past years and was applied by the concerned companies, he said. Moreover, it came in compliance with public interests and Kuwait's adherence to international labour conventions.
CBC
3 days ago
- General
- CBC
Occupational health and safety charges laid after employee's death
27-year-old Liam Johnston died in 2023 when a trench collapsed during sewer repairs. The 11 OHS charges include failing to ensure worker safety.
CBS News
4 days ago
- General
- CBS News
California bill seeks to place speed cameras in road construction zones
A bill under consideration in the California legislature aims to prevent Caltrans worker deaths and injuries, by placing automated speed cameras in highway construction zones. Assembly Bill 289 by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) would establish a pilot program that would place cameras at up to 75 construction zones in the state. Haney spoke about the measure at a news conference off Interstate 80 near Davis on Wednesday, surrounded by construction workers. "This bill is about saving lives and it's about valuing the workers who risk their lives to build California's infrastructure," he said. Haney discussed the danger highway construction workers face on the job, noting that 9,500 crashes took place in the state's work zones in 2021, leading to 73 deaths and nearly 3,000 injuries. In 2023, there were more than 100 vehicle intrusions into highway work sites, which led to injuries and even deaths. "This isn't just tragic, it's preventable. And we have a responsibility to fix it and protect both workers and drivers," Haney added. Haney also noted the success of a pilot program that placed speed enforcement cameras in several cities, including San Francisco. "Speeds are going down, crashes are being reduced and behavior is changing," he said. According to the text of the measure, speeding drivers would face fines starting at $50 for driving 11 to 15 miles per hour above the posted speed limit, with increasing fines for higher violations. Drivers caught going 100 mph or faster in a work zone would receive a fine of $500. Haney said the bill includes fine reductions and payment plans for lower-income drivers. The bill prohibits the speed cameras from using facial recognition and limits data use. If approved, California would join 16 other states that have already placed speed cameras in work zones. Haney said Maryland and Pennsylvania, which already have the cameras in construction zones, have seen dramatic reductions in speeding and crashes. AB289 has passed out of three Assembly committees with bipartisan support and is headed to the Assembly floor.
E&E News
4 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
Heat is killing oil workers. The industry is trying to kill a rule for that.
The oil and gas industry is pushing the Trump administration to kill a proposed rule that would protect workers from extreme heat, arguing that it jeopardizes the president's vision of achieving 'energy dominance.' The opposition comes as people who work in U.S. oil and gas fields face increasingly dangerous conditions as global temperatures swell with rising levels of climate pollution. The industry is among the nation's leading workplaces for heat-related deaths and injuries. The American Petroleum Institute is one of several industry groups that has called on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to abandon the regulation, which was proposed under former President Joe Biden and requires employers to offer water and rest breaks when temperatures rise above 80 degrees. The federal protections were drafted for the first time last year as global temperatures reached their highest levels ever recorded by humans. Advertisement 'API Ask: Do not proceed on the currently proposed Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Standard,' the group wrote to the Department of Labor in December, in a memo that has not previously been made public. It lists the proposed heat rule as one of four priorities in a 'vision for American energy leadership.' 'The oil and gas industry is poised to fully realize its potential under a new era of energy dominance,' the group wrote, adding that its priorities are 'essential to achieving this energy potential.' Heat has killed 137 workers nationwide since 2017 and hospitalized thousands more, according to an analysis of OSHA data by POLITICO's E&E News. Construction and agriculture workers bear the brunt of heat injuries and fatalities, but people who extract fossil fuels in oil and gas fields, or those in support service jobs, also succumb to extreme temperatures. The fossil fuel industry accounts for 4 percent of heat-related deaths in the U.S. and nearly 7 percent of worker hospitalizations, according to federal data. That makes the industry the third-highest sector for hospitalizations from heat and among the top five for heat-related deaths. Workers have fallen ill or died while operating oil and gas drilling rigs, installing pipes, and delivering odorants. Strenuous activity can amplify the dangers of high temperatures, leading to kidney damage, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, a condition that results in organ failure and death in a matter of minutes. An oil refinery is silhouetted against the sky in El Dorado, Kansas. | Charlie Riedel/AP The string of record-breaking temperatures year after year foreshadows what could be a deadly summer, as climate change fueled by the combustion of fossil fuels turbocharges heat waves around the world. Texas has already sweltered under 100-degree heat, a record for May, and the rest of the nation is on track to experience warmer-than-normal temperatures. OSHA cited the death toll from heat, and the role of climate change in causing them, when it proposed the protections in July. They cover some 35 million people. Many of the rules' requirements mirror recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since the 1970s. Now the rule is in the hands of the Trump administration, which has launched a concerted effort to terminate government climate offices, repeal regulations for lowering greenhouse gases and roll back billions of dollars in climate funding. President Donald Trump rejects the basic tenets of climate science. One of the first signs of whether the rule might survive will come in June, when OSHA officials are scheduled to hold a hearing to collect public comment on the proposal. API spokesperson Charlotte Law declined to answer questions about heat illness rates in the oil and gas industry, saying in a statement, 'we don't have anything further to add beyond the memo.' The document takes issue with rest break requirements in the draft rule, saying it 'unreasonably requires reduce work/exposure hours for experienced workers, potentially leading to operational difficulties with no clear safety improvement.' Heat rules 'stifle … creativity, innovation' OSHA has identified six heat-related fatalities involving fossil fuel workers since 2017. One construction worker collapsed at a gas-fired power plant, and multiple people have died from heat as they tried clearing clogged wells and pipes. Others became ill and died while pressure-washing equipment in the hot sun, and one became fatally sick as he was sweeping up spilled metallurgical coke, according to OSHA records. Some 149 workers in the oil and gas industry have been hospitalized for heat exposure since 2017, compared to nine workers in the wind and solar industries. One OSHA citation described how a Texas worker began complaining of cramps and nausea — symptoms of heat illness — while trying to clear two obstructed well holes in 2017. Instead of being offered a break, the employee was 'encouraged to continue to work,' the OSHA citation said. He later died after experiencing convulsions and without receiving medical attention. OSHA issued fines amounting to $21,367 to the employer, Patco Wireline Services, for three serious violations. The fines were later dropped in a settlement. Officials with Patco, based in Houma, Louisiana, couldn't be reached for comment. A well site supervisor looks onto the Permian Basin from the control room of an oil drilling rig in Odessa, Texas. | David Goldman/AP OSHA has issued citations in each of the six industry heat deaths since 2017. The fines came under legal requirements that employers keep workplaces free of 'recognized hazards' — a general provision that would be replaced by the more detailed heat rule, if it's ever finalized. The draft heat rule outlines specific steps employers must take to prevent workers from falling ill. In addition to offering water and rest breaks, companies would have to train managers and workers to identify symptoms of heat illness and when to get medical attention. 'There are a lot of places where workers can't say, 'Oh, it's getting hot out here, I need to drink some water,' and this would help protect them before they are so ill they need to go to the hospital or die,'' said Jordan Barab, former deputy assistant secretary for OSHA during the Obama administration. Oil and gas groups disagree. API collaborated with the American Exploration and Production Council, the International Association of Drilling Contractors, and others on a letter to OSHA in January that called the rule 'flawed.' The groups argued that it applies 'a one-size-fits all prescriptive standard to arguably the most prevalent hazard ever faced by employers across the US.' 'Unless the heat rule is substantially changed, OSHA would create unnecessary burdens and stifle the creativity, innovation and individualized performance-oriented solutions that the oil and gas industry seek to foster,' they said. 'Our hope therefore is that this version of a proposed heat rule will not move forward through the rulemaking process.' The shadows of oil workers are seen climbing stairs in the Permian Basin. | AFP via Getty Images The groups take particular issue with temperature triggers in the proposed rule, which requires employers to provide water and rest breaks when combined heat and humidity reach 80 degrees. At 90 degrees, workers would get 15-minute breaks to rest and drink water after every two hours of work. They would be paid during the breaks. Such 'unbridled access to breaks' is unworkable, the industry argued. 'Employers should be allowed to set break schedules based on their specific workforce operations,' the groups wrote. They added that the rule would be a burden in cold and warm climates — from Alaska's North Slope to the Permian Basin in Texas. Eighty-degree days are so uncommon in Alaska, they argued, that 'the cost of imposing the Heat Rule's requirements are not justifiable and would be unduly burdensome and difficult to consistently apply.' It would also 'be a significant burden' in Texas because temperatures regularly exceed 80 degrees, 'requiring employers to comply with the initial heat requirements nearly half the time,' the letter said. 'Campaign of deception' The fossil fuel industry is not alone in opposing the proposed rule. Representatives of the construction and manufacturing industries made similar arguments at a hearing this month of the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. But the oil and gas industry may carry extra weight during the Trump administration. Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office aimed at 'unleashing American energy' that directed federal departments to review existing regulations and policies that 'impose an undue burden on the identification, development or use of domestic energy resources.' Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer (center) visited an oil and gas facility near Bakersfield, California, last month. | U.S. Department of Labor Neither OSHA nor the Department of Labor responded to questions about whether they have completed the review. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has expressed support for the fossil fuel industry, but hasn't publicly remarked on the heat rule. 'Unleashing American energy will create good-paying jobs and lower costs for business and families,' she wrote in anApril post on X about the department's efforts to train workers 'to secure American Energy Dominance.' She also toured an oil and gas facility in Bakersfield, California, that's owned by California Resources to mark 'President Trump's first 100 days of economic success.' As the Trump administration weighs whether to kill OSHA's heat rule, more workers could die — and not just in the fossil fuel industry. Shana Udvardy, a senior climate analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, which has advocated for worker heat protections, argued that the fossil fuel industry's role in heat deaths goes deeper than the climate pollution it releases. 'If not for the fossil fuel industry's concerted, multidecade campaign of deception, the U.S. and the world may have taken much more ambitious action to curb the worst effects of climate change,' she said. 'If the industry were paying its fair share toward the cost of climate damages and climate adaptation,' she added, 'we'd have more public resources and capacity to protect workers.'
