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Workers’ comp report digs into heat-related illness claims

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Photo: Minnesota Department of Transportation/flickr

Waltham, MA — The number of heat-related illnesses “increases significantly” once the temperature rises above 80° F, results of a recent analysis from the Workers Compensation Research Institute show.

For its Heat-Related Illnesses in the Workplace report, WCRI reviewed 2013-2020 workers’ comp claims data from 31 states to identify worker groups that more commonly experience heat-related illnesses (including heat exhaustion and heatstroke) based on their age, gender and tenure at the time of injury, as well as industry and regional composition.

Compared with days with maximum temperatures of 75-80° F, the number of heat-related illnesses was seven times greater on days with high temps of 90-95° F, 11 times higher on days reaching 95-100° F and 18 times greater when the high temp exceeded 100° F.

Other key findings:

  • 90% of the claims reported a temperature that exceeded 80° F, while 56% indicated the mercury climbed above 90° F.
  • Workers younger than 35 had the highest rate of heat-related illnesses, with 250-300 per 100,000 claims. Workers 55 and older had 123-153 per 100,000 claims.
  • Workers with one to two months of tenure on the job had the highest rate of heat-related illnesses (345 per 100,000 claims) and accounted for 26% of the claims. At three to five months of job tenure, the rate dropped to 232 per 100,000 claims.
  • Among industries, public safety had the highest rate of heat-related illness claims, with 1,052 per 100,000 claims.
  • Southern states had the highest rate of heat-related illnesses (309 per 100,000 claims) and three times more than northeastern states.

Under OSHA’s proposed heat rule published on Aug. 30, employer requirements, or the “initial heat trigger,” would go into effect when the heat index in the work area reaches 80° F or the wet bulb globe temperature is “equal to the NIOSH Recommended Alert Limit.” Additional requirements would go into effect when the heat index reaches 90° F or the WGBT is equal to NIOSH’s Recommended Exposure Limit. OSHA refers to this as the “high heat trigger.”

“These findings are especially significant amid ongoing policy debates on heat standards at the state and federal levels,” Sebastian Negrusa, vice president of research at WCRI, said in a press release. “They also suggest that the broader impact of excessive heat on workplace safety extends beyond HRIs, contributing to an increase in other injuries such as falls and cuts.”

The report builds on prior research from WCRI that looked at heat-related illnesses in the workplace and distinguished the effects of excessive heat on heat-related illnesses vs. heat-related incidents.

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