If you haven’t seen the news report yet, it talks about a hardworking UPS driver collapsing from the heat on somebody’s porch clearly suffering from heat exhaustion. It goes on to describe that the UPS vehicles have no air conditioning, with the example of 35 Celcius (95F) becoming over 51 Celcius (125F) inside the van.
Cell death in mammals (of which humans are a part) occurs at 42 Celcius, causing all sorts of intracelluar cell damage (read: internal organ damage), so the idea of people being forced to drive in vehicles above 42 Celcius strikes me as nothing short of attempted murder, likely in a cynical attempt to lower costs.
OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) don’t offer any clear regulations on maximum temperature, and certainly any worker trying to find out what legal rights they have against such abuse, if any, will be met with pages of obfuscated jargon.
OSHA talk at length about symptoms of heatstroke and other heat related illnesses, ways employers could mitigate heat related issues, but no mention of requirements and offer zero practical insights on what legal rights workers have for the workers themselves.
What good is suggesting a sun hat if company uniform bans it as a policy? Download an app to measure the temperature? Why? They already know it’s too hot, how the hell does that help them? OSHA doesn’t really say.
To try to obsfucate even further, OSHA then babble on about “WBGT” (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature), because what’s really important to employees is how super-accurately you measure the temperature, and not, you know, putting actual heat mitigation measures in place.
This isn’t sufficient confusion from OSHA though, who then pass the buck onto a completely different organisation: The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH).
ACGIH aren’t really concerned about making materials accessible to workers though, more concerned with inventing a “Threshold Limit Value” (which is a registered trademark for some reason) that just involves overly bloated calculations and figures.
No doubt as a thinly veiled attempt to obsfucate workers from their rights by making an overly complex, flaw-riddled equation that is difficult for anyone but the seers of ACGIH to decipher. Why OSHA are outsourcing their work to a privatised third party firm with a massive conflict of interest is beyond us.
ACGIH are so little concerned with workers rights that they actually attempt to disable your browser’s ability to right-click on their website, fearing you might dare copy or reference any of their work. ‘NO’ screams ACGIH ‘YOU CAN'T HAVE MY PRECIOUS MADE-UP EQUATION, IT'S MINE, NOT YOURS, MINE!’
It is evident the suffering of workers is not on the forefront of OSHA’s mind. The material is difficult to decipher, they’ve outsourced to a third party firm who try to control the information like it’s some sort of magical ‘Intellectual Property’ even though we’re talking about people boiling to death from heatstroke here.
It’d be like if someone tried to privatise First Aid by saying the specific techniques for determining a cut were patented intellectual material. The literal worst of the American capitalism market.
Ironically, ACGIH’s algorithm isn’t all that good. A peer-reviewed study showed with ACGIH’s unhelpful suggestions, older adults failed to maintain safe core body temperatures:
The recommended Threshold Limit Values for heat exposure fail to maintain body core temperature within safe limits in older working adults
Where it goes on to note:
Our findings indicate that the TLV® guidelines do not prevent body core temperature from exceeding 38°C in older workers. Furthermore, a stable core temperature was not achieved within safe limits (i.e., ≤38°C) indicating that the TLV® guidelines may not adequately protect all individuals during work in hot conditions.
I’d rather OSHA just abolish it and give an upper boundary on core body temperature. Who the hell cares if you wear a sun hat? Only an evil corporatist would try to throw in variables like ‘weather’, ‘loose clothing’ and ‘sweating’ as a flimsy attempt to justify not treating their workers right.
UPS’ own excuse was equally as laughable, if it wasn’t so dark: they claimed that the air conditioning inside a van was ‘inefficient’. Apparently it’s okay to mistreat and abuse your workers, subjecting them to harsh, above-cell-death temperatures so long as it’s in the name of efficiency. Exactly the kind of heartless corporatist talk the public despise.
Whilst OSHA dwaddles, UPS drivers and their kin are suffering heatstrokes and exhausting in the blistering temperatures. There needs to be a passing of legislation ensuring that vehicles are treated as part of a workplace (which they are), subject to the same conditions a building would be (I.E. functional air conditioning, body temperature limits, etc).
OSHA were contacted for comment regarding whether or not they had any regulations regarding an upper temperature, but they did not comment in time for publication. If any comment is received, it will be added to this article.
We received comment from OSHA on the 26th July… if you could call it a comment.
Thank you for your email to the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA). It appears that you are outside of OSHA?s jurisdiction, and we do not have the resources to assist you or cannot answer your question based on your location. The Occupational Safety and Health Act, 29 U.S.C. ?? 651 et seq. (OSHA), requires U.S. employers to adhere to certain safety standards in the workplace. The statute?s application is expressly limited to ?employment performed in a workplace in a State, the District of Columbia, The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Lake Island, Outer Continental Shelf lands . . . Johnston Island, and the Canal Zone.? 29 U.S.C. ? 653(a) (1990).
Apparently they can’t answer my question about Federal regulations because I’m not in America personally. I read this as ‘no, we don’t have any suitable provisions for collapsing, exhausted, overheated drivers, but rather than say that, we’ll just discriminate as to where you’re from’. Good job OSHA.
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