Podcast: Implementing effective heat stress programs to protect workers and cut costs

Key takeaways

• Heat-related deaths have surged due to longer, more frequent heat waves and better medical reporting of heat stress risks.
• OSHA’s heat stress National Emphasis Program is extended to 2026, with ongoing inspections and regulatory hearings underway.
• Seven states have heat stress regulations, complicating compliance but raising worker protections, while others hinder heat safety laws.
• Strong heat stress programs can cut illness by 90% and workers’ comp costs by over 50%, making prevention both smart and cost-effective.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Adrienne Selko, senior editor at EHS Today, speaks with Cam Mackey, president and CEO of the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), about the growing risks of heat stress in the workplace. They explore the rise in heat-related incidents, shifting OSHA regulations, and the role of state-level legislation in protecting workers. The conversation also highlights best practices for heat stress prevention, including the use of monitoring tools, cooling PPE, and comprehensive safety programs. Together, Adrienne and Cam examine how companies can proactively safeguard their workforce as temperatures continue to rise.

Below is an edited excerpt from the podcast:

EHST: Let's talk about [heat stress] statistics. Why was there a 28% increase in heat deaths from 2022?

CM: It's a great question. It's a simple question, but there are actually a few different answers.
So you know, there's, you know, scientific proof, right?

We're seeing more of these extreme heat days as they're called every year, so that they're more of the days that are that are seeing extreme heat. They're coming earlier in the season and the seasons actually lasting longer.

There's some, you know, pretty scary stats coming out of out of NOAA that says, you know, looking at today compared to the 1960s, the average heat wave season in just in the US is 49 days longer and we're having heat waves three times more frequently.

So to answer your question, kind of the first piece, Adrienne, is it's just getting hotter out.

Another piece that that is also really kind of surging is medical reporting has improved, right?

You know, so if you look at again a simple question, how many workers are or injured or you know, heaven forbid, die each year from heat stress the official number from OSHA is about 50 to 55. Other bodies, such as Public Citizen, think that number might be as high as 2000.

So we have a lot of probably historic underreporting going on and fortunately we're getting a lot better as a society in recognizing the signs of heat as a root cause, not just a contributing factor.

So a few years ago, if you looked at something like, you know, kidney failure, a cardiac event, those might not have been attributed to heat, but now we know better. We're starting to connect the dots and recognize heat as the underlying cause.

All that said, you know a lot of work needs to be done.

One of the messages that's really core to us here at ISEA, every single heat-related death is preventable.