Is your warehouse too hot?
June 26, 2007 by Splatty
Filed under Misc Logistics, Warehousing
I was visiting a potential client yesterday discussing their ocean import business and touring their warehouse operations. As we walked through the warehouse I remember thinking to myself how thankful I am that I do not have to work in a warehouse environment especially during the summer months. I was really thankful after walking into to a 40′ container at the dock and seeing the container floor loaded with countless boxes (the container was much hotter than the warehouse). I asked my client how long it would take his warehouse crew to unload and sort/segregate the boxes and he said, “approximately three hours”. Three hours breathing in forklift exhaust and lifting boxes in 100 degree weather does not sound like my idea of a good time.
This report from Logisticstoday.com mentions a proposed bill that would call for workplace monitoring to avoid exposing workers to extreme heat.
Discussions of the bill have frequently referred to a fatal incident at a Rite Aid distribution center in Lancaster, CA. Though the coroner determined the death was not heat related, conditions at the facility—specifically its lack of air conditioning—have been used repeatedly in the discussion of the need for the safety rules change. In a statement issued by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the union quotes a company spokesperson allowing that heat may have been a contributing factor. In a subsequent interview with an official spokesperson from Rite Aid, the spokesperson said no such statement was made by an authorized spokesperson. The company’s position has been and remains that the death was not heat related—as indicated by the coroner’s report.
The proposed bill calls for training in recognition and prevention of heat-related illness. It also calls for workplace monitoring, preventive rest and work breaks, and ready access to drinking water.
Eric on Tue, 3rd Jul 2007 8:45 pm
Splatty, I feel your comments. I used to have a customer whose main DC was in Phoenix. Visiting them in the summer, it could be 130 degrees outside and that DC wasnt air conditioned…but they had pallet load after pallet load of bottled water. Those folks who work in those buildings needed to absolutely crush some fluids each day to do their jobs.
Its worse (much worse) when its also very humid. South China is rough in the summer. I remember visiting a furniture factory in July one time in Guangzhou and after about 15 minutes my white dress shirt was soaked thru so much a colleague joked that I was going to enter a wet T Shirt contest! (I didn’t appreciate that…I would never have won.)
Eric
Splatty on Tue, 3rd Jul 2007 11:50 pm
Eric, both areas are extremely hot. I lived in Hong Kong for a time and can definitely relate to the hot humid weather there. I would break a sweat just getting out the door in the morning. I can’t imagine working in a warehouse unloading cargo all day.