June 27, 2025 • 20 mins
The episode of the Leading and Learning Through Safety podcast, hosted by Dr. Mark French, centers on the pressing issue of summer safety, particularly heat stress and seasonal workplace hazards. Dr. French emphasizes the growing concern over heat-related illnesses due to rising temperatures across the U.S. He highlights ongoing OSHA hearings aiming to implement enforceable standards around heat stress, including rest breaks, hydration, acclimatization, and emergency response plans. While some argue the proposed rules are a one-size-fits-all approach, French stresses that many companies already exceed these baseline protections—and that the real issue is often a lack of enforcement or awareness.
He shares a personal anecdote about carnival workers suffering from heat exhaustion due to delayed safety measures, underlining the human cost of inaction. Beyond heat, the episode discusses summertime hazards such as roadwork risks, fall protection for tree-trimmers and landscapers, and trenching dangers in construction. French calls on both employers and the public to take proactive steps: employers must ensure PPE is appropriate for hot weather, provide thorough safety training for seasonal workers, and prepare for increased workloads; the public must stay alert around roadside workers to prevent accidents.
Ultimately, French urges leaders to anticipate seasonal risks, bolster training and supplies, and foster a safety culture where early warning signs are recognized and acted upon. His message is clear: summer brings recurring hazards, and preparation—not surprise—is key to preventing injuries and saving lives.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark French (00:01):
This week on the leading and learning through
safety podcast, we're going totalk about the summer season. It
feels like it's already here inmost of the US, there's a lot of
hazards out there and a lot ofitems we can be doing as leaders
to protect our people. This weekon the podcast, you
Announcer (00:35):
foreign. Welcome to the leading and learning through
safety podcast. Your host is DrMark French. Mark's passion is
helping organizations motivatetheir teams. This podcast is
focused on bringing out the bestin leadership through creating
strong values, learningopportunities, teamwork and
(00:56):
safety. Nothing is moreimportant than protecting your
people, safety creates anenvironment for empathy,
innovation and empowerment.
Together, we'll discover meaningand purpose through shaping our
safety culture. Thanks forjoining us this episode and now
here is Dr Mark French,
Mark French (01:31):
much. Welcome to this episode of the leading and
learning through safety podcast.
So happy you've joined me.
Welcome as always. Thank you forallowing me to be part of your
podcast rotation. Downloadedright to you, and thank you for
that. This week, a lot ofinformation and news and items
(01:52):
happening that just remind usthat the summer season is upon
us. May not be fully summer yet,but this past week, across most
of the US, it has felt like itvery strongly felt like it heat
waves hitting everywhere. It wasunbelievable to me that I can
travel from Texas back home toKentucky and up to
(02:16):
Massachusetts, and it was hoteverywhere. It was just a matter
of where was the worst heatadvisory that was in effect for
that, for that location, and it,it's everywhere I've went. I've
taken the heat with me andbrought it back home again. I
think it's evidently that's justme bringing it around. But let's
(02:38):
talk a little bit about heatstress the OSHA hearings have
started with OSHA is trying toenact the heat stress, some form
of a heat stress program for forindoor and outdoor workplaces.
And the public hearings havebeen going as kind of expected
(02:59):
thus far, and the typicalarguments that happen. And those
of us who have been leading inand been in safety and even just
been around it, we know heatstress is a problem. We know you
can acclimate. We also know thescience behind it that says that
once you've been affected byheat stress or heat stroke, it's
(03:21):
more likely to happen again thatthere's certain things you can
do with rest, water and shade.
It has to do with air flow anddirect sun and how much
humidity, all those things. AndI believe it was last year that
actually there was a courthearing where someone won
against OSHA. They had cited ageneral duty clause. Don't quote
me on this exactly. Iremembering vaguely, there was a
(03:44):
citation for general duty forheat stress. They argued that
the heat stress by the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. No one theNational Weather Service that
their heat stress guide was notbased in some sort of science or
wasn't correctly attributed, andthat got released because of
(04:07):
that. That's how they won thecase. And so where it moves is
that OSHA needs to actuallypropagate a law. We need to
create the law to protect peoplefrom the heat, which is wild,
that we have to do that andwe're not just giving the right
things to people to be safe,he's a tough thing to judge,
(04:27):
because people want to work inmost cases, what I have seen is
even in the cases wherecompanies have a very good
policy of taking breaks, ofresting, there's a general
desire of people to work hard,and so they continue to push and
continue to work, and that'swhat leads to it. There are some
on the other side. There aresome companies who give 00 cares
(04:49):
and just punish their people.
And a lot of outdoor workershave that happen to them on.
Fortunately, farmers and thoseout in the fields, that's the
work they do, and sometimes it'snot proper. And I've told the
story so many times of where mywife and I were at a carnival,
(05:11):
and she was setting up herpottery booth, and I was just
helping in the carnival workerswho were setting up the rides
for this festival. It wasblazing hot, like again, it was
one of those situations where itwas probably record breaking.
Record breaking heat in thatarea, and it before they brought
out the coolers full of water,someone had to have an ambulance
called because they were havinga heat stroke. It was that
(05:34):
serious before they even thoughtto hand out water and give them
a break of the ones working outthere building this equipment or
putting it together and gettingit ready for the festival.
That's wild, that that's whathas to happen. But let's go into
kind of what's happening herewith some of the items is that
basically of the very basics ofwhat they're trying to put into
(05:57):
place is that there's heattriggers, there are rest breaks.
It is for 10 or more employees,typical OSHA language. There's
some sort of a climatizationprocess that you would follow
training and then also emergencyresponse plan in place to be
able to recognize and help thosewho may be showing signs of heat
(06:20):
related illness. Now the biggestargument against it is that it's
one size fits all, and that 80degrees or 90 degrees or 100
degrees in California may bedifferent than in Florida versus
different, in Michigan versusdifferent, and in wherever take
your pick, it could be it's onesize fits all well most OSHA
(06:41):
standards are and for a reason,and generally speaking, it's
really the companies that aregoing to be really wanting to
follow it, or are tryingalready, are probably already
doing more than what thisrequires, which is Unbelievable.
Most OSHA standards are thatway. They're the base minimum,
(07:04):
and we're arguing the baseminimum. And we know there's
some argument there, of course,but we know that heat kills
there is no doubt that itcreates suffering, it creates
harm, it creates hurt. And thereare some things that can be done
now, the heat is unavoidable,and I love the story of years
(07:24):
ago in a company, every year, inthe summertime, we would put a
capital project in to createmore ventilation for the side,
because it was really hot. Andthen basically summer would pass
because we'd never be able toget the capital project moving
that fast, and then it woulddrop off, because suddenly no
one's complaining. And then wewould get back into spring and
summer, and everybody would pulltheir hair out and go, Oh my
(07:47):
gosh, it's so hot. What are wegoing to do? And I would remind
them that, well, we had thiscapital project, but we decided
not to fund it in the in thewinter, because no one was
complaining or thinking aboutit, but we were still talking
about it, but we didn't doanything. And we're acting like
we're surprised that it's summerand it's hot. We can't act like
that. It just oh my gosh, Ican't believe it. It's hot
(08:08):
again. Yeah, it's summer, that'swhat happens. And if it sneaks
up on you, that's weird, becauseit happens every year, and it
gets hot, and so what do we do?
We provide more water. We tellour team to rest when they need
it and where possible, where wehave hands on. We take the time
(08:29):
to pull them away and give themthat break and have a cooled
area or have fans going. We dowhat we can to control what we
can, and we hope that we'vegiven enough ability for our
team to recognize when maybesomeone of their peer may need
some help and to attend to thembefore it gets serious, that
when we want to prevent it asmuch as we can in some of it, I
(08:52):
hate to say this, but I'm gonnamake the general it's Not 100%
preventable to not have somesigns of heat related issues,
because you could be I've doneit myself where I went out and
started working, and it's my ownfault that the water is right
there, the shade is right there,the rest is right there. I just
(09:13):
get focused, and I need someoneto remind me to come out and
take that break, or I wait untilI'm like, Oh man, I'm not
feeling well, or I'm reallysweating, or I'm something like,
I'm not in heat stroke, but I'mbeginning to recognize some of
the early signs. Well, that'swhat it takes, is the
flexibility and ability to haveeverything readily available for
our team when heat comes thatwe're doing all we can to
(09:38):
control it. We train. We givethem the ability. We give them
the items that they need to beable to catch what's going on
and take that break when theyneed it. Sometimes it's a longer
break because, okay, we need toreally get rehydrated. We have
the items available that peopleneed. They're readily available
right in front of them, ready togo. You. So that it's easy, as
(09:59):
easy as it can be, to take thatbreak and protect themselves.
That's what it's about with theheat stress policies and the the
processes we do, what we can,where we can, to control what we
can an environment is tough tocontrol, but we can at least
have everything available. Youknow, let's talk a little bit
(10:20):
more about summer. We're movingoff of heat on the second half,
but let's talk more aboutsummertime safety on the next
half of the leading and learningthrough safety podcast.
Stinger (10:32):
You are listening to the leading and learning through
safety podcast with Dr MarkFrench,
Commercial (10:41):
dsda Consulting.
Learn you lead others. TheMyers, Briggs Type Indicator is
an amazing tool. Problem is thatit can be easily misinterpreted.
Dr Mark French is MBTI certifiedand ready to help you discover
your inner strengths. The MBTIassessment can help with team
building, stress management,communication, conflict
(11:03):
management, and so much more,individual and group sessions
are available to help youdiscover what makes you great.
For more information, visit uson the web, AT T, S, D, A
consulting.com
Mark French (11:19):
and welcome back to the second half of the leading
and learning through safetypodcast this week, we're talking
about summer. It comes everyyear, and with every year,
there's hazards the next onethat I want to that I've seen
already, and they continuethroughout the year, but it
really picks up during thesummertime. Is road work. And I
(11:40):
once heard someone joke, and Iforgot where state in the
Northeast I was visiting, andthey made the joke that in our
state, we have two seasons snowand road work. Those are the two
seasons we have. It's road workseason, and unfortunately,
there's a lot of injuries anddeaths happening from people
(12:00):
getting struck, workers on theroad getting struck by vehicles,
and in some of these cases, theemployer has done so much to
protect them. They've done thework of putting out cones and
high visibility, and we as thepublic, and I'm putting myself
(12:21):
in this because I commute a lot.
I when I have to go to theairport, when I have to go
places, I live in a very ruralarea, so even to go get fuel or
groceries, I'm driving a decentdistance. I'm commuting a lot,
and with that comes the risk ofpeople being on the side of the
road, doing their work, doingtheir job, and me not being
distracted as a driver, betweendriving my mini ton death
(12:47):
machine, as you may say, andkeeping aware of where they are
and not letting myself swerve orGet distracted. And it's more
and more so difficult,especially one that they put
down the phone. Don't text anddrive. Don't be distracted. See
what's happening. If you seeroadwork signs start slowing
(13:11):
down, then don't be the one thathas to slam on their brakes and
jump over in the lane at thevery last minute because you
weren't preparing to merge andto slow down and to be more
aware, because there's workersnow on the other side, the
employers. We have a lot we haveto do to evaluate the risk that
is out there, to follow the bestguidance that we can find, keep
(13:34):
our team clothed the right wayand in the heat, finding where
you're being able to find theright PPE that doesn't just
overwhelm you with heat whilestill being antsy approved. It
takes a little searching. It'sit's out there, but it takes a
little bit more effort than justlayering up in more vests or
whatever. It takes a little bitmore but doing that, having the
(13:57):
right cones, having plenty ofcones, because those things get
run over. They get theydisappear, all the things that
happen when you're using itemslike that, working on the stuff,
putting up barricades whereneeded having, having a strategy
in place for protecting workerswhen they're out there on the
(14:19):
road, it's our responsibility.
Is having workers out there tolook at those things, and then
we have to hope that the public,that we here's the we, again,
including myself, are beingaware and trying to raise enough
awareness flashing lights andbanners and bright orange and
bright yellow that they see thatwe have people on the side of
(14:42):
the road working, and this timeof year we are in road work
season. Please be more aware.
I'm asking, if you happen tohear this, I'm sure you probably
are already doing that, butmaybe you can help remind
someone else to just be a littlebit more aware this time of.
Year. Other items, a lotunfortunately, seeing more and
(15:03):
more of your arborists, treetrimmers, lawn workers, because
now things are growing andpeople want them to get trimmed.
Fall Protection, lawn mowers notturning over, like having the
seat belt, having the head guardup all the way, making sure you
have the right mower, that theyou're not zipping in the wrong
direction up crazy hills, thatyou're not trying to shortcut
(15:27):
that and have a rollover event,or making sure you have the
right tools people are aware ofwhen a limb might fall and if
they're trimming trees, peoplebelow you, under where you're
working, under the bucket,there's a lot of extra work that
goes into some of the summertimejobs that come around every
(15:48):
year, this time of year, that weas safety professionals, as
leaders, we have to be awarethat we need to spend extra time
talking about them, talkingabout the fact that we're going
to be doing more of this. We'regoing to see more in most cases,
like with seasonal workers,you're going to bring in more
people, and have to train themand bring them up to speed
(16:11):
quickly with the safetyprocedures, with the safety
policies to make sure the workis done, especially like the
outdoor jobs that come with treetrimming and lawnscaping and all
those wonderful things that comewith having summer and growth
and farm workers taking care ofthem in the same way as they're
going out and doing that work inthe summer providing again,
(16:35):
we're back on heat again alittle bit providing those
items. The the other one is alot of with construction, there
also comes, as typical, a lot oftrenching. And with trenching
comes so many hazards. There isa process and a way to make it
(16:57):
as safe as you can make it. Butunfortunately, with a lot of
this, where I see the deaths andfatalities being the ones where
nothing was done, where we theorganization, didn't take any
precautions, didn't help in anyway, to train, prepare, take the
time to do it right. And herewhere I live, there's been tons
(17:20):
and tons of rain, and now it'sjust blazing hot, so it's
difficult. The soil conditionsare not really great anyway, but
even more so for trenching. Andso we have to take the
precautions. So as you look atwhat's happening and going on in
your world as a leader, as asafety person, take an extra
(17:42):
look at what are the things thatcome around every summer, and
are we prepared for it? Have webeefed up our inventory? Are we
prepared for what already seemsto be here? But what can we do
more to make our team aware,prepare them for the hazards,
and ultimately, maybe help savea life, because we were able to
(18:02):
get ahead of it and talk aboutit. Thanks for joining me on
this episode of the leading andlearning through safety podcast.
My thanks for having me as partof your podcast rotation as we
go into summer, watch out forthose workers. Prepare our team.
Be ready for all the new people.
(18:26):
Have a good training process inplace. You know, we give it the
best we can. We're neverperfect, but we're always
striving to get just a littlebit better in how we engage that
team. Hope you have a greatwhatever is coming next in this
hot summer, take care ofyourself and until next time we
(18:47):
chat, stay safe.
Announcer (19:01):
Thank you for listening to the leading and
learning through safety podcast.
More content is available onlineat www dot tsda consulting.com
all the opinions expressed onthe podcast are solely
attributed to the individual andnot affiliated with any business
entity. This podcast is forinformational and entertainment
(19:26):
purposes. It is not a substitutefor proper policy, appropriate
training or legal advice.
You This has been the leadingand learning through safety
(19:57):
podcast. You.
This week on the leading and learning through
safety podcast, we're going totalk about the summer season. It
feels like it's already here inmost of the US, there's a lot of
hazards out there and a lot ofitems we can be doing as leaders
to protect our people. This weekon the podcast, you
Announcer (00:35):
foreign. Welcome to the leading and learning through
safety podcast. Your host is DrMark French. Mark's passion is
helping organizations motivatetheir teams. This podcast is
focused on bringing out the bestin leadership through creating
strong values, learningopportunities, teamwork and
(00:56):
safety. Nothing is moreimportant than protecting your
people, safety creates anenvironment for empathy,
innovation and empowerment.
Together, we'll discover meaningand purpose through shaping our
safety culture. Thanks forjoining us this episode and now
here is Dr Mark French,
Mark French (01:31):
much. Welcome to this episode of the leading and
learning through safety podcast.
So happy you've joined me.
Welcome as always. Thank you forallowing me to be part of your
podcast rotation. Downloadedright to you, and thank you for
that. This week, a lot ofinformation and news and items
(01:52):
happening that just remind usthat the summer season is upon
us. May not be fully summer yet,but this past week, across most
of the US, it has felt like itvery strongly felt like it heat
waves hitting everywhere. It wasunbelievable to me that I can
travel from Texas back home toKentucky and up to
(02:16):
Massachusetts, and it was hoteverywhere. It was just a matter
of where was the worst heatadvisory that was in effect for
that, for that location, and it,it's everywhere I've went. I've
taken the heat with me andbrought it back home again. I
think it's evidently that's justme bringing it around. But let's
(02:38):
talk a little bit about heatstress the OSHA hearings have
started with OSHA is trying toenact the heat stress, some form
of a heat stress program for forindoor and outdoor workplaces.
And the public hearings havebeen going as kind of expected
(02:59):
thus far, and the typicalarguments that happen. And those
of us who have been leading inand been in safety and even just
been around it, we know heatstress is a problem. We know you
can acclimate. We also know thescience behind it that says that
once you've been affected byheat stress or heat stroke, it's
(03:21):
more likely to happen again thatthere's certain things you can
do with rest, water and shade.
It has to do with air flow anddirect sun and how much
humidity, all those things. AndI believe it was last year that
actually there was a courthearing where someone won
against OSHA. They had cited ageneral duty clause. Don't quote
me on this exactly. Iremembering vaguely, there was a
(03:44):
citation for general duty forheat stress. They argued that
the heat stress by the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. No one theNational Weather Service that
their heat stress guide was notbased in some sort of science or
wasn't correctly attributed, andthat got released because of
(04:07):
that. That's how they won thecase. And so where it moves is
that OSHA needs to actuallypropagate a law. We need to
create the law to protect peoplefrom the heat, which is wild,
that we have to do that andwe're not just giving the right
things to people to be safe,he's a tough thing to judge,
(04:27):
because people want to work inmost cases, what I have seen is
even in the cases wherecompanies have a very good
policy of taking breaks, ofresting, there's a general
desire of people to work hard,and so they continue to push and
continue to work, and that'swhat leads to it. There are some
on the other side. There aresome companies who give 00 cares
(04:49):
and just punish their people.
And a lot of outdoor workershave that happen to them on.
Fortunately, farmers and thoseout in the fields, that's the
work they do, and sometimes it'snot proper. And I've told the
story so many times of where mywife and I were at a carnival,
(05:11):
and she was setting up herpottery booth, and I was just
helping in the carnival workerswho were setting up the rides
for this festival. It wasblazing hot, like again, it was
one of those situations where itwas probably record breaking.
Record breaking heat in thatarea, and it before they brought
out the coolers full of water,someone had to have an ambulance
called because they were havinga heat stroke. It was that
(05:34):
serious before they even thoughtto hand out water and give them
a break of the ones working outthere building this equipment or
putting it together and gettingit ready for the festival.
That's wild, that that's whathas to happen. But let's go into
kind of what's happening herewith some of the items is that
basically of the very basics ofwhat they're trying to put into
(05:57):
place is that there's heattriggers, there are rest breaks.
It is for 10 or more employees,typical OSHA language. There's
some sort of a climatizationprocess that you would follow
training and then also emergencyresponse plan in place to be
able to recognize and help thosewho may be showing signs of heat
(06:20):
related illness. Now the biggestargument against it is that it's
one size fits all, and that 80degrees or 90 degrees or 100
degrees in California may bedifferent than in Florida versus
different, in Michigan versusdifferent, and in wherever take
your pick, it could be it's onesize fits all well most OSHA
(06:41):
standards are and for a reason,and generally speaking, it's
really the companies that aregoing to be really wanting to
follow it, or are tryingalready, are probably already
doing more than what thisrequires, which is Unbelievable.
Most OSHA standards are thatway. They're the base minimum,
(07:04):
and we're arguing the baseminimum. And we know there's
some argument there, of course,but we know that heat kills
there is no doubt that itcreates suffering, it creates
harm, it creates hurt. And thereare some things that can be done
now, the heat is unavoidable,and I love the story of years
(07:24):
ago in a company, every year, inthe summertime, we would put a
capital project in to createmore ventilation for the side,
because it was really hot. Andthen basically summer would pass
because we'd never be able toget the capital project moving
that fast, and then it woulddrop off, because suddenly no
one's complaining. And then wewould get back into spring and
summer, and everybody would pulltheir hair out and go, Oh my
(07:47):
gosh, it's so hot. What are wegoing to do? And I would remind
them that, well, we had thiscapital project, but we decided
not to fund it in the in thewinter, because no one was
complaining or thinking aboutit, but we were still talking
about it, but we didn't doanything. And we're acting like
we're surprised that it's summerand it's hot. We can't act like
that. It just oh my gosh, Ican't believe it. It's hot
(08:08):
again. Yeah, it's summer, that'swhat happens. And if it sneaks
up on you, that's weird, becauseit happens every year, and it
gets hot, and so what do we do?
We provide more water. We tellour team to rest when they need
it and where possible, where wehave hands on. We take the time
(08:29):
to pull them away and give themthat break and have a cooled
area or have fans going. We dowhat we can to control what we
can, and we hope that we'vegiven enough ability for our
team to recognize when maybesomeone of their peer may need
some help and to attend to thembefore it gets serious, that
when we want to prevent it asmuch as we can in some of it, I
(08:52):
hate to say this, but I'm gonnamake the general it's Not 100%
preventable to not have somesigns of heat related issues,
because you could be I've doneit myself where I went out and
started working, and it's my ownfault that the water is right
there, the shade is right there,the rest is right there. I just
(09:13):
get focused, and I need someoneto remind me to come out and
take that break, or I wait untilI'm like, Oh man, I'm not
feeling well, or I'm reallysweating, or I'm something like,
I'm not in heat stroke, but I'mbeginning to recognize some of
the early signs. Well, that'swhat it takes, is the
flexibility and ability to haveeverything readily available for
our team when heat comes thatwe're doing all we can to
(09:38):
control it. We train. We givethem the ability. We give them
the items that they need to beable to catch what's going on
and take that break when theyneed it. Sometimes it's a longer
break because, okay, we need toreally get rehydrated. We have
the items available that peopleneed. They're readily available
right in front of them, ready togo. You. So that it's easy, as
(09:59):
easy as it can be, to take thatbreak and protect themselves.
That's what it's about with theheat stress policies and the the
processes we do, what we can,where we can, to control what we
can an environment is tough tocontrol, but we can at least
have everything available. Youknow, let's talk a little bit
(10:20):
more about summer. We're movingoff of heat on the second half,
but let's talk more aboutsummertime safety on the next
half of the leading and learningthrough safety podcast.
Stinger (10:32):
You are listening to the leading and learning through
safety podcast with Dr MarkFrench,
Commercial (10:41):
dsda Consulting.
Learn you lead others. TheMyers, Briggs Type Indicator is
an amazing tool. Problem is thatit can be easily misinterpreted.
Dr Mark French is MBTI certifiedand ready to help you discover
your inner strengths. The MBTIassessment can help with team
building, stress management,communication, conflict
(11:03):
management, and so much more,individual and group sessions
are available to help youdiscover what makes you great.
For more information, visit uson the web, AT T, S, D, A
consulting.com
Mark French (11:19):
and welcome back to the second half of the leading
and learning through safetypodcast this week, we're talking
about summer. It comes everyyear, and with every year,
there's hazards the next onethat I want to that I've seen
already, and they continuethroughout the year, but it
really picks up during thesummertime. Is road work. And I
(11:40):
once heard someone joke, and Iforgot where state in the
Northeast I was visiting, andthey made the joke that in our
state, we have two seasons snowand road work. Those are the two
seasons we have. It's road workseason, and unfortunately,
there's a lot of injuries anddeaths happening from people
(12:00):
getting struck, workers on theroad getting struck by vehicles,
and in some of these cases, theemployer has done so much to
protect them. They've done thework of putting out cones and
high visibility, and we as thepublic, and I'm putting myself
(12:21):
in this because I commute a lot.
I when I have to go to theairport, when I have to go
places, I live in a very ruralarea, so even to go get fuel or
groceries, I'm driving a decentdistance. I'm commuting a lot,
and with that comes the risk ofpeople being on the side of the
road, doing their work, doingtheir job, and me not being
distracted as a driver, betweendriving my mini ton death
(12:47):
machine, as you may say, andkeeping aware of where they are
and not letting myself swerve orGet distracted. And it's more
and more so difficult,especially one that they put
down the phone. Don't text anddrive. Don't be distracted. See
what's happening. If you seeroadwork signs start slowing
(13:11):
down, then don't be the one thathas to slam on their brakes and
jump over in the lane at thevery last minute because you
weren't preparing to merge andto slow down and to be more
aware, because there's workersnow on the other side, the
employers. We have a lot we haveto do to evaluate the risk that
is out there, to follow the bestguidance that we can find, keep
(13:34):
our team clothed the right wayand in the heat, finding where
you're being able to find theright PPE that doesn't just
overwhelm you with heat whilestill being antsy approved. It
takes a little searching. It'sit's out there, but it takes a
little bit more effort than justlayering up in more vests or
whatever. It takes a little bitmore but doing that, having the
(13:57):
right cones, having plenty ofcones, because those things get
run over. They get theydisappear, all the things that
happen when you're using itemslike that, working on the stuff,
putting up barricades whereneeded having, having a strategy
in place for protecting workerswhen they're out there on the
(14:19):
road, it's our responsibility.
Is having workers out there tolook at those things, and then
we have to hope that the public,that we here's the we, again,
including myself, are beingaware and trying to raise enough
awareness flashing lights andbanners and bright orange and
bright yellow that they see thatwe have people on the side of
(14:42):
the road working, and this timeof year we are in road work
season. Please be more aware.
I'm asking, if you happen tohear this, I'm sure you probably
are already doing that, butmaybe you can help remind
someone else to just be a littlebit more aware this time of.
Year. Other items, a lotunfortunately, seeing more and
(15:03):
more of your arborists, treetrimmers, lawn workers, because
now things are growing andpeople want them to get trimmed.
Fall Protection, lawn mowers notturning over, like having the
seat belt, having the head guardup all the way, making sure you
have the right mower, that theyou're not zipping in the wrong
direction up crazy hills, thatyou're not trying to shortcut
(15:27):
that and have a rollover event,or making sure you have the
right tools people are aware ofwhen a limb might fall and if
they're trimming trees, peoplebelow you, under where you're
working, under the bucket,there's a lot of extra work that
goes into some of the summertimejobs that come around every
(15:48):
year, this time of year, that weas safety professionals, as
leaders, we have to be awarethat we need to spend extra time
talking about them, talkingabout the fact that we're going
to be doing more of this. We'regoing to see more in most cases,
like with seasonal workers,you're going to bring in more
people, and have to train themand bring them up to speed
(16:11):
quickly with the safetyprocedures, with the safety
policies to make sure the workis done, especially like the
outdoor jobs that come with treetrimming and lawnscaping and all
those wonderful things that comewith having summer and growth
and farm workers taking care ofthem in the same way as they're
going out and doing that work inthe summer providing again,
(16:35):
we're back on heat again alittle bit providing those
items. The the other one is alot of with construction, there
also comes, as typical, a lot oftrenching. And with trenching
comes so many hazards. There isa process and a way to make it
(16:57):
as safe as you can make it. Butunfortunately, with a lot of
this, where I see the deaths andfatalities being the ones where
nothing was done, where we theorganization, didn't take any
precautions, didn't help in anyway, to train, prepare, take the
time to do it right. And herewhere I live, there's been tons
(17:20):
and tons of rain, and now it'sjust blazing hot, so it's
difficult. The soil conditionsare not really great anyway, but
even more so for trenching. Andso we have to take the
precautions. So as you look atwhat's happening and going on in
your world as a leader, as asafety person, take an extra
(17:42):
look at what are the things thatcome around every summer, and
are we prepared for it? Have webeefed up our inventory? Are we
prepared for what already seemsto be here? But what can we do
more to make our team aware,prepare them for the hazards,
and ultimately, maybe help savea life, because we were able to
(18:02):
get ahead of it and talk aboutit. Thanks for joining me on
this episode of the leading andlearning through safety podcast.
My thanks for having me as partof your podcast rotation as we
go into summer, watch out forthose workers. Prepare our team.
Be ready for all the new people.
(18:26):
Have a good training process inplace. You know, we give it the
best we can. We're neverperfect, but we're always
striving to get just a littlebit better in how we engage that
team. Hope you have a greatwhatever is coming next in this
hot summer, take care ofyourself and until next time we
(18:47):
chat, stay safe.
Announcer (19:01):
Thank you for listening to the leading and
learning through safety podcast.
More content is available onlineat www dot tsda consulting.com
all the opinions expressed onthe podcast are solely
attributed to the individual andnot affiliated with any business
entity. This podcast is forinformational and entertainment
(19:26):
purposes. It is not a substitutefor proper policy, appropriate
training or legal advice.
You This has been the leadingand learning through safety
(19:57):
podcast. You.
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