Ginners Marketplace COTTON
COTTON FARMING IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GINNING INDUSTRY.
On July 2, 2024, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration published a proposed rule designed to protect workers from illness and injury associated with heat exposure. This proposed rule follows an “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” that goes back to 2021. This proposed rule has been expected for some time. Since the ANPRM, OSHA has had a National Emphasis Program on heat injury and illness, and they’ve had materials on their website for several years before that. When the NEP came out and the ANPRM was published, OSHA targeted a few industries for initial enforcement. Two of those were warehousing and agriculture. In the first couple of years of the NEP, at least 13 gins were “randomly” selected in one region for inspection under the heat NEP. Their association had worked with the gins in the region to get materials in the hands of those gins and raise awareness, and no citations for heat were written. This begs the question “citations for what?” There was no standard against which to write a citation. They were attempting to write citations on the “General Duty Clause.” We’ve discussed the General Duty Clause several times before, but in short, it means if you know something is a hazard, and there’s a way to mitigate it, you have a duty to fix it — no standard needed.
PONGSAK TAWANSAENG/DREAMSTIME.COM
Update On Rule To Protect Workers From Heat Injury And Illness
the heat. This may limit the duties of new employes for some period until they’re used to the heat. This proposed rule applies to indoor and outdoor work, and we expect it will apply to agriculture and warehousing as well
Cotton Ginners Marketplace
Employer Requirements The newly proposed Heat Injury and Illness standard contains a long list of things that employers need to do to comply. These steps are based on trigger levels. If any employees are required to work in an environment with a heat index of 80 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 min or more, the employer must take certain steps including having a Heat Illness and Injury Prevention Plan (HIIPP). Also required are things like heat index monitoring and employee training. The details of these programs would require way more space than is available here. A heat index above 90 degrees F would be a “High Heat Trigger.” Additional steps would have to be observed including monitoring the heat index or wet bulb globe temperature, implementing an observation or buddy system and prescribed breaks of 15 min every two hours. Also included in the standard are acclimatization procedures for getting new or newly returning workers used to working in
An informative email summary of your gin’s daily performance. Text 662-809-9730 for an example report 20 COTTON FARMING | SEPTEMBER 2024
SEED BLOWERS
Stocked at strategic locations throughout the cotton belt Call Jim 972.381.8899 | Cliffgranberrycorp.com
COTTONFARMING.COM