COURSE DESCRIPTION

Heat stress and cold can pose a special threat to workers in a wide range of geographic areas. Many manufacturing workers must deal with hot and cold temperatures in their factories throughout the year. Outdoor workers face the threat of cramps, exhaustion, heat stroke and worse every summer. During the winter months, these workers must prepare for cold temperatures. This course explains what thermal stress can do to working people and discusses ways to avoid the many health problems it can cause.

This course introduces the actions necessary to reduce the risk of employee exposure to heat and cold stress. This course provides the most important recommendations and how to apply them to the situation at hand. With the proper application of these procedures, it is more likely that employees will know what to do to prevent heat stress and cold stress.

This course is based on the NCDOL document, “A Guide to Preventing Heat Stress and Cold Stress” and is intended to be consistent with all existing OSHA standards. If an area of this course is considered by the reader to be inconsistent with an OSHA standard, then the OSHA standard should be followed.

This course includes a multiple-quiz at the end, which is intended to provide 2 hours of professional development.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the conclusion of this course, the student will have learned or been exposed to the following:
• How the body regulates heat
• The hazards of heat stress
• Preventing and controlling heat stress
• The hazards of cold stress
• Preventing and controlling cold stress
• Proper implementation of a safe work environment