Equipping Health & Safety Trainers with a Heat Stress Prevention Tool
- The Ask: Heat stress is a major issue for workers and communities across the U.S. as climate change worsens. At a fall 2023 meeting, representatives of organizations funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Worker Training Program (WTP) expressed the need for a heat stress prevention training tool/toolkit targeting disaster response workers. Based on feedback from the WTP-funded organizations, the toolkit would need to address the health and safety risks of excessive heat exposures during climate disaster response and cleanup, with prevention tools, practices, and protocols for workers.
- The Solution: MDB conducted a literature review of peer-reviewed articles, white papers, reports, and other publications focused on occupational health and safety, heat illness and injury prevention, and the intersections of key exacerbators for heat stress (e.g., air pollution), over the past 10 years. We also used an iterative focus group and review process to gather suggestions from WTP staff and subject matter experts on the format and content of the first tool to be included in the heat stress toolkit. This process enabled us to develop a new tool for WTP, Building Blocks for a Heat Stress Prevention Training Program.
- Notable Outcomes: The first tool in the heat stress prevention toolkit, Building Blocks for a Heat Stress Prevention Training Program, features questions that can help a health and safety trainer/professional determine strategies needed to better protect workers from heat-related injuries and illness on the job. Trainers and professionals can also use the toolkit to educate workers involved in disaster response, construction, and other jobs about the risks of extreme heat exposure indoor and outdoor work environments. This tool will be shared with WTP-funded organizations, training centers, and other agencies across the country.
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