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Heat Illness, OSHA Guidance and Room Alert

While heat waves are affecting much of the country, the United States government is busy announcing actions to help protect workers affected by extreme heat and heat index. The Department of Labor and OSHA have been directed to increase the enforcement of heat safety violations to help ensure workers are protected against heat illness, especially in high-risk workplaces, such as construction and agriculture sites. OSHA mandates that employers provide safe work conditions and protect employees from heat-related hazards and resulting injuries and illnesses in outdoor and indoor workplaces.

A critical component to employers complying with the U.S. Department of Labor and OSHA best practices include installing temperature and heat index monitoring in the workplace. The world just sweltered through its hottest June in the 174-year global climate record and there’s no sign of the heat letting up any time soon.

Heat-related illnesses are the leading cause of death among all weather-related workplace hazards and these deaths are preventable with the proper heat illness prevention plan. The most effective way to start creating your heat illness prevention plan is with proactive environment monitoring, as ambient temperature and heat index monitoring is part of OSHA’s federal guidance.

Room Alert provides temperature, humidity, and heat index monitoring in an easy-to-use format that allows you to monitor your workplace environment and protect your people, property, and productivity while maintaining OSHA compliance.

Room Alert is the best proactive environment monitoring solution for overseeing your workplace temperature, humidity, heat index, air flow, power and more. The Room Alert platform consists of monitors, sensors, accessories, and software that all work together to help you follow OSHA guidelines and keep workers safe from all kinds of environmental impacts. Room Alert hardware monitors your environment and communicates with Room Alert software that will promptly notify you via text or email to any changes that could jeopardize the safety of your employees, customers and anyone else in your facilities.

Room Alert helps you manage a wide variety of safety concerns such as heat index, which is the “feels like” temperature that helps us interpret how the heat and humidity affects how the temperature feels to the human body. For example, our Digital Temperature & Humidity Sensor has a special enclosure cap to promote increased air circulation that results in fast and accurate readings of the conditions in your environment.

Our award-winning Room Alert Account online dashboard and our local Room Alert Manager software both allow users to set up heat index monitoring based on OSHA and NWS guidance with just a few clicks. We make it as easy as possible for you to protect your people, products, and productivity.

If Room Alert detects the heat index has risen above 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius), which is when fatigue is possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity, then it can alert you to take caution. Now with the immediate notice from Room Alert, you and your team can take corrective action such as turning on the AC for your workers to prevent heat exhaustion, heat stroke, heat cramps and death.

Dangers of high Heat Index in the workplace

You can’t always know when extreme environmental threats such as heatwaves are going to hit, but you can proactively install Room Alert for peace of mind that your workers are safe from deadly heat-related hazards. Whether you are mandated to comply with OSHA guidelines or want to make sure your work environment is as safe for employees as possible, Room Alert is ready to help. Our team is happy to work with you to understand exactly what your organization needs to meet state/ federal requirements and keep your workplace safe.

If you have any questions, please contact us today through email at Sales@AVTECH.com, through our online Live Chat service, or via phone at 401.628.1600.