The province's proposed heat stress regulations don't go far enough, according to a group dedicated to the identification and prevention of work-related illnesses.
Earlier this month, the province introduced legislation that would require employers to take steps to protect workers from heat exposure while on the job.
Andre Gauvin is an Occupational Hygienist with the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW). He said while it's great that the province wants to do more to prevent heat-related illnesses, he believes there are a lot of gaps in the proposal.
"And if they're not addressed, they can actually lead to placing workers at higher risk of heat stress," he said.
Gauvin said OHCOW would like to see the government refer directly to the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLVs), which are the maximum average airborne concentration of a hazardous material to which healthy adult workers can be exposed.
Gauvin said there's things that aren't included, that are in the ACGIH TLV, and the province tried to simplify it.
"For example, there's no action limit which, in the standard, is considered to be an exposure limit for unacclimatized workers," he said. "So in the legislation, the exposure limit is set at the threshold limit value in the ACGIH, which would be the limit for climatized workers."
He said there's also no mention of acclimatization in the legislation, and that workers who are not acclimatized are at much higher risk of heat stress -- it takes about two weeks of continuous heat exposure to become fully acclimatized. Gauvin said OHCOW is submitting some recommendations for the legislation, as part of the submission process, before the bill is tabled this September.
Gauvin believes improvements are needed for employers to really do something about heat stress. He said under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, an employer must take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of the worker.
"So, in order to meet the new legislation, employers must have a plan to reduce or control exposure of workers who are exposed to heat stress," he said. "So, I think it is needed for that reason."
Heat stress is when the human body is placed under a hot environment and it starts to lose the ability to cool itself appropriately.
Gauvin said the goal of the heat stress legislation is to protect workers and keep their bodies at or below 38 C. "And when the body reaches temperatures above 38 C, the early stages of heat illness can start with a rash, a headache or feeling faint," he said. "But it can really lead to severe heat illness and even death if a person continues to be exposed to extreme heat."
Gauvin said OHCOW has been fighting for this legislation for a while now. He believes it's finally being introduced because heat is really on everybody's radar, mainly due to climate change, and Ontario is seeing more cases of heat related illness.
With files from Natalia Vega
