Heat Illness Prevention During these Excessive Hot Summer Days

Heat Illness Prevention During these Excessive Hot Summer Days

Patrick Cavanaugh
Patrick Cavanaugh
This week with temperatures are heating up in the tree nut orchards throughout California. It's extremely important for farm employees to know how to prevent heat illness.

Larry Williams is CFO of the E. E. Hall Company among the largest ag labor contractors in the state. Williams is also the Executive Risk and Safety Manager for the company and they take workers safety in the field, very seriously.

“The heat illness is a big thing for us because we employ over 25,000 employees throughout the state of California. And we're in the ag industry and we're in all commodities. So he is a big thing, especially in the summertime for us,” said Williams.

And Williams describes how they get it done across the state. And the first thing they provide is shade trailers for 100% of their employees to get under during breaks.

‘In addition to the shade trailers, if needed, we have canopies umbrellas where needed for our individual irrigators, and we try to make sure we're ahead of the game,” he said.

And regulations state, that shade must be available to all workers. When temperatures reach 80 degrees. “Yes, we have to have shade available. And every site that we pull up to, we automatically bring shade, whether it's 60 degrees, a hundred degrees, shade is already there and available,” noted Williams.

And of course, plenty of water must be available for all field employees. And when temperatures reach 95 degrees or above the employer shall ensure that employees take a minimum 10 minute preventative cool down rest period, every two hours.

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