08/07/2024: Keeping Cool at School: Addressing Indoor and Outdoor Heat Standards to Protect Workers

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Keeping Cool at School: Addressing Indoor and Outdoor Heat Standards to Protect Workers

About the webinar:

Panelists Mitch Steiger and David Hornung, along with moderators Monique Hosein and Laura Stock, will review the issue of heat as an occupational safety and health hazard, review the current Cal/OSHA standards in place to address indoor and outdoor heat, and offer guidance on implementing controls to protect workers.

This presentation by LOHP in collaboration with COEH is based on the School Action for Safety and Health (SASH) administered by the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation in the California Department of Industrial Relations through an interagency agreement with the Labor Occupational Health Program at the University of California, Berkeley.

Learning Objectives

At the completion of this activity, the learner will be able to:

Describe the hazards of indoor and outdoor heat and the connection to the climate crisis
Outline the elements of the Cal/OSHA heat standards to protect workers from indoor and outdoor heat
Identify strategies to protect school-based workers from heat

About the Speakers

Dr. Monique Hosein is a Coordinator of Public Programs at LOHP. Her project portfolio includes leading the WOSHTEP (Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program) and SASH (School Action for Safety and Health) programs. Monique is a graduate of the Doctor of Public Health program at UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the Master of Public Health program (Community Health Education) at San Francisco State University. She has a background in mixed methods research through the lenses of health equity, the intersection of race and gender, and cultural humility. LOHP’s Social Justice and Worker Health seminar and her time as a student member of the LOHP Academic Advisory Committee crystallized Monique’s interest in healthy jobs as a determinant of health. Joining the LOHP team in 2022 was a realization of that commitment to safe, healthy, just workplaces.

Laura Stock is the director of the Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP). She directs and administers LOHP’s programs providing training, research support, materials development and technical assistance for workers, employers, health professionals, and the general public. She also provide direction to staff on translating research findings to practice and to public policy (R2P2P). In her over thirty years at LOHP, she has developed various training programs and educational materials on occupational safety and health issues and have provided technical assistance and consultation to workers, unions, joint labor/management committees, employers, policymakers and others on how to set up comprehensive and effective health and safety programs. Ms. Stock is currently principal investigator on a number of statewide worker education initiatives including WOSHTEP (Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program), and is a former member of the Cal/OSHA Standards Board, charged with developing occupational safety regulations for the state of CA as well as the NIOSH/ NORA Committees on Healthy Work Design.

Mitch Steiger is the Legislative Representative for the CFT, a Union of Educators and Classified Professionals. The CFT is a union of educators and classified professionals affiliated with the 1.7-million-member American Federation of Teachers, and through it with the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Steiger’s role is to advocate on behalf of CFT member educators and classified professionals in a variety of issue areas by introducing and lobbying for passage of union-sponsored bills. Mr. Steiger also represents workers on a variety of statewide boards and commissions and is a member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, Local 39521.

David Hornung started work for Cal/OSHA in 2009 as a compliance officer in Oakland. He spent his first summers with Cal/OSHA performing heat inspections in the early days of the heat illness prevention standard. He is currently the Statewide Heat Program Coordinator. David received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2002 and a Master in Public Health in 2007 from UC Berkeley - Go Bears! David is a Certified Industrial Hygienist.

ACCREDITATION

The Center for Occupational and Environmental Health designates this activity for a maximum of 1 Contact Hour. Participants should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.

Certificates of Completion

Certificates of Completion will be available to webinar participants who are present for the complete, live webinar, and logged in with their registered email address. Call-in attendees are not eligible for certificates at this time - Please download the Zoom app to log in via email on your smartphone whenever possible.

In order to receive your Certificate of Completion, qualified learners must complete the post-webinar evaluation within 7 days of the webinar. A link to the evaluation will be emailed to qualified learners 24 hours after the webinar via no-reply@zoom.us. Qualified learners who submit their evaluation will receive a Certificate of Completion via email, and can also print/save the certificate from their browser after submitting their evaluation.

If you're not able to attend the live presentation, no problem! We record most presentations and will host them on our website provided we have permission to do so. Presentation recordings are not eligible for Certificates of Completion.

ACCESSIBILITY:

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) to fully participate in this event, please contact Michelle Meyer at (510) 642-8365 or mmeyer@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail) with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.

About The Labor Occupational Health Program

LOHP promotes safe, healthy, and just workplaces and builds the capacity of workers and worker organizations to take action for improved working conditions. We work with a range of partners including unions, worker centers and community organizations, agencies, employer groups, policy makers, and academics.

We look broadly at the impact of work on health and we advance the principle that Healthy Jobs – which pay a living wage, provide job security and benefits, protect against hazards and harassment, have reasonable workloads, and engage workers in the decisions that affect them – are a basic human right.