OSHA launches annual heat illness prevention campaign

Washington – To help prevent thousands of potential worker heat-related illnesses, OSHA on May 20 launched its third annual Heat Illness Prevention Campaign.

The campaign includes educational resources, a heat index guide to help employers develop a prevention plan, a variety of training resources and a smartphone application.

New to this year’s campaign are a bilingual fact sheet, Portuguese wallet cards (.pdf file) and an updated webpage.

OSHA said that with the help of various stakeholders and partnerships, the agency was able to reach out to 4.5 million employers and workers during last year’s campaign. This year, outreach will include social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook and worker safety precautions included in National Weather Service heat watches and warnings.

In 2011, 4,420 workers suffered a heat-related illness and 61 workers died, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.