Agree completely!
:good:
Know the rules.
If an employee gets sick or dies you can bet CalOSHA is going to ask a lot of questions and it will be ugly if the employer didn't do something simple like provide cold water.
I almost always bring my own water but on incidents cold bottled water is provided. It is important to eat good meals in hot weather too. We actually had an incident commander look at the safety officer and say, "you will make sure the surveyors eat lunch" after he found out we skipped lunch the day before. Skipping meals is dangerous in hot weather. I didn't know that.
Nice ice machine. Might want to fix the trip hazard though. 😀
absolutely pay for water and ice
here in the desert southwest, we're as hot and dry as most anywhere, and the need to hydrate is critical. the 5 gallon Igloo coolers are a pain to keep clean, so we basically have gallon jugs of fresh water for each of us, and if you want it cold, put some in your cooler (each truck usually has a 28-48 qt cooler in for lunches and drinks, a large block of ice lasts a couple days in a good cooler). Personally, I like to fill a couple Nalgene bottles each day and have those cold to start in the cooler, with a gallon water bottle not in cooler (hate having to recycle the smaller plastic bottles, so we've gotten away from buying 16-24 ounce bottles). I keep one bottle out so it's not super cold - when it's really hot, really cold water is down right painful to swallow, so we don't like ice cold water all the time. But, at the end of the day, it's nice to pull a cold water bottle out for the drive home, when smaller slugs seem to hit the spot, rather that the large gulps taken while working hard. for jobs where we're away from the truck for extended periods of time, a 22 ounce Nalgene bottle fits really well into a paint can holder on my tool bag belt - that gets refilled at each trip back to the truck.
hard to imagine not paying for clean water and ice.
> I've got no problem with safety rules.
>
> Every place I've worked, I have been responsible for packing my own lunch, bringing my own fluids, choosing the proper clothing for the weather, ect. ect. If not I was miserable all day - didn't happen again.
>
> With that said, every shop had some dusty old igloo cooler sitting in the equipment shed that nobody wanted to take the time to fill/empty every day. Water was available, but not because it was solving some sort of safety hazard or because some group forced them to provide it.
>
> I understand heat exhaustion is dangerous.
I'm more in line with your thinking. I'm not against any employer wanting to provide, if he chooses so, but I'm not a fan of coddling.
Hey, maybe it is a N-S thing. I don't do a lot of fieldwork above 83 deg either.
> Know the rules.
>
> If an employee gets sick or dies you can bet CalOSHA is going to ask a lot of questions and it will be ugly if the employer didn't do something simple like provide cold water.
>
> I almost always bring my own water but on incidents cold bottled water is provided. It is important to eat good meals in hot weather too. We actually had an incident commander look at the safety officer and say, "you will make sure the surveyors eat lunch" after he found out we skipped lunch the day before. Skipping meals is dangerous in hot weather. I didn't know that.
Yeah, you're probably right. But shouldn't it more a question of why didn't the employee bring enough water for himself? It's not like the employer prevented the employee from bringing water.
Sometimes you need to be responsible for yourself.
I blame it on early potty training, there's those who have been taught that each is responsible for themselves and those who never will accept such a harsh way of thinking.
jud
I'd have to think that any quality employee wouldn't work for a company that doesn't follow legal requirements when it comes to providing a safe working enviroment, and any quality boss wouldn't ask them to.
What is her name?
The boss, that is!
🙂
We have a lot of people, so we assign the water and ice detail to a couple of people. We have an ice cooler here that we have filled up with bags of ice weekly. During the summer months, we add Squencher mix to the water.
under what regulation is providing warm water to surveyors illegal?
The regulation you quoted, part 1915 of title 29 of the code of federal regulations, applies only to shipyard employment, so unless you are working for a shipbuilder it wont apply to surveyors.
OSHA
1910.141(b)(1)(i)
Potable water shall be provided in all places of employment, for drinking, washing of the person, cooking, washing of foods, washing of cooking or eating utensils, washing of food preparation or processing premises, and personal service rooms.
1910.141(b)(1)(iii)
Portable drinking water dispensers shall be designed, constructed, and serviced so that sanitary conditions are maintained, shall be capable of being closed, and shall be equipped with a tap.
OSHA
1926.51(a)(1)An adequate supply of potable water shall be provided in all places of employment.
1926.51(a)(2)Portable containers used to dispense drinking water shall be capable of being tightly closed, and equipped with a tap. Water shall not be dipped from containers.
1926.51(a)(3)Any container used to distribute drinking water shall be clearly marked as to the nature of its contents and not used for any other purpose.
1926.51(a)(4)The common drinking cup is prohibited.
1926.51(a)(5)Where single service cups (to be used but once) are supplied, both a sanitary container for the unused cups and a receptacle for disposing of the used cups shall be provided.