Section 3395: heat illness prevention on a vegetation crew
Title 8 section 3395 applies to all outdoor places of employment, including line clearance tree trimming. It requires one quart of drinking water per employee per hour, shade above 80 degrees Fahrenheit, a five-minute cool-down rest on request, emergency response procedures, 14 days of close observation for newly assigned employees, training, and a written plan.
A three-person crew is clearing a 12 kV lateral that runs up a hillside off a dirt access road. The chip truck is parked at the gate, 400 yards back, because the truck cannot get up the hill. The trimmer is 55 feet up a valley oak, in chaps, a hard hat and a Class 2 vest. At 1:20 in the afternoon a thermometer held in full sun, with the bulb shielded by a hand, reads 97 degrees.
Every one of those facts carries a requirement, and all of them come from a single safety order. It is section 3395, filed in Article 10 of the General Industry Safety Orders under the heading Personal Safety Devices and Safeguards, which is a part of Title 8 a tree crew rarely opens.
The scope sentence, and the one exception attached to it
This section shall be known and may be cited as the Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez heat illness standard, and shall apply to all outdoor places of employment. Exception: If an industry is not listed in subsection (a)(2), employers in that industry are not required to comply with subsection (e), High-heat procedures.
That is section 3395(a)(1) entire. The scope is every outdoor place of employment in California. It reaches utility work, storm restoration, and crews that stand at a given span for forty minutes.
The name comes from Labor Code section 6721(a), which gives the standard its statutory citation.
The one exception narrows a single subsection. An employer outside the five listed industries still owes water, shade, cool-down rests, emergency response procedures, acclimatization observation, training and a written plan. It is only the extra high-heat package at 95 degrees that turns on the list.
Cal/OSHA applies this to tree work directly. The Division's Tree Work Safety Guide of March 2025 carries Heat Illness Prevention as one of its common tree work safety topics, and puts section 3395 in its table of other commonly applicable Title 8 sections alongside 2940.2, 2951 and 3203. The Division's Tree Work Safety page lists "Heat stroke and organ failure from exposure to hot environments" among the ways this work kills people.
Which of the five industries a line clearance crew is in
Subsection (a)(2) names five.
Industry | Defined in section 3395(b)? |
Agriculture | No |
Construction | No |
Landscaping | Yes |
Oil and gas extraction | Yes |
Transportation or delivery of agricultural products, construction materials or other heavy materials | No, but carries its own exception in the text |
Landscaping gets a definition, and it is broad:
"Landscaping" means providing landscape care and maintenance services and/or installing trees, shrubs, plants, lawns, or gardens, or providing these services in conjunction with the design of landscape plans and/or the construction (i.e., installation) of walkways, retaining walls, decks, fences, ponds, and similar structures, except for employment by an employer who operates a fixed establishment where the work is to be performed and where drinking water is plumbed.
Construction is left undefined. The nearest text is section 1502(a), which applies the Construction Safety Orders to work in connection with the construction, alteration, painting, repairing, construction maintenance, renovation, removal or wrecking of any fixed structure or its parts.
Two facts point a line clearance contractor into the list. Cal/OSHA's own Pocket Guide for the Construction Industry indexes "Line clearance (tree trimming) operations. 2951." And the Division's Heat Illness Prevention Special Emphasis Program says its high-heat inspections "will target primarily agricultural, construction, and landscaping activities."
Neither fact settles it. Trimming a valley oak back off a primary is vegetation management for electrical clearance, which reads differently from landscape care. The fixed structure in section 1502(a)'s sentence is the conductor, and the thing being cut is a tree. The compliance officer classifies the work on the day of the inspection. The Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board decides it if the citation is appealed.
The practical answer is to stop litigating it in your own plan. Write subsection (e) into the Heat Illness Prevention Plan and train to it. A contractor that has done that can let the argument go.
One quart per employee per hour, and where the cooler sits
Employees shall have access to potable drinking water meeting the requirements of Sections 1524, 3363, and 3457, as applicable, including but not limited to the requirements that it be fresh, pure, suitably cool, and provided to employees free of charge. The water shall be located as close as practicable to the areas where employees are working. Where drinking water is not plumbed or otherwise continuously supplied, it shall be provided in sufficient quantity at the beginning of the work shift to provide one quart per employee per hour for drinking for the entire shift.
That is section 3395(c). Every span in the state lies beyond plumbed water, so the quart per hour governs the whole trade.
Do the arithmetic before the truck leaves the yard.
Crew | Shift | Water required at shift start |
1 employee | 8 hours | 2 gallons |
3 employees | 8 hours | 6 gallons |
3 employees | 10 hours | 7.5 gallons |
4 employees | 10 hours | 10 gallons |
One five-gallon cooler runs a three-person crew dry before the end of an eight-hour day. The standard allows a smaller start only with "effective procedures for replenishment during the shift," and Cal/OSHA's outdoor heat FAQ sets a hard edge on what that means. Four common practices fall outside it.
A replenishment procedure that is unreliable.
Waiting until the vessel is empty to refill it.
Refilling only when somebody asks.
Requiring workers to supply their own water or containers, even with reimbursement.
Now the 400 yards. "As close as practicable" is the phrase that gets cited, and the Division has put a floor under it. A footnote in the Heat SEP warns compliance officers not to confuse water placement with field sanitation:
This requirement should not be confused with the Field Sanitation (T8 CCR 3457) requirements, which allows placement of bathroom facilities within one quarter of a mile or a five minute walk. Water must be closer than this.
Four hundred yards is inside a quarter mile, and that is the wrong test. The FAQ asks the inspector to make the supervisor describe the factors the employer weighed in choosing where the water sits. When employees work across large areas, water goes in multiple locations. On this job that means a jug at the base of the tree being worked, carried up the hill with the crew while the chipper stays at the gate.
Shade at 80 degrees, and what counts as shade
Subsection (d) runs on the temperature at the work area.
When the outdoor temperature in the work area exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the employer shall have and maintain one or more areas with shade at all times while employees are present that are either open to the air or provided with ventilation or cooling. The amount of shade present shall be at least enough to accommodate the number of employees on recovery or rest periods, so that they can sit in a normal posture fully in the shade without having to be in physical contact with each other.
Below 80 degrees, subsection (d)(2) still requires either shade under (d)(1) or timely access to shade on request. Shade stays on the employer's list at every temperature.
The amount is measured against the crew on break. A three-person crew that breaks together needs shade for three people seated with space between them. The same test applies at the meal period, for whoever stays on site.
Section 3395(b) defines shade, and the definition rules out the two things a tree crew reaches for first:
"Shade" means blockage of direct sunlight. One indicator that blockage is sufficient is when objects do not cast a shadow in the area of blocked sunlight. Shade is not adequate when heat in the area of shade defeats the purpose of shade, which is to allow the body to cool. For example, a car sitting in the sun does not provide acceptable shade to a person inside it, unless the car is running with air conditioning.
Candidate on a line clearance job | Counts as shade? |
Bucket truck cab, air conditioner running | Yes, and the FAQ requires the air conditioner to run throughout the workday |
Bucket truck cab, engine off | No |
Under the chip truck or the chipper | No, the FAQ rules out areas underneath mobile equipment |
Canopy of an adjacent tree | Yes, if dense enough to block sunlight substantially and the branches are high enough to sit up straight under |
The tree being worked | No, that is the work area |
Pop-up canopy staged with the crew | Yes, if ventilated or open to air |
The canopy allowance is worth reading carefully, because it is the cheapest compliant option a vegetation crew has. The FAQ accepts trees as shade "superior to artificially provided shade" on two conditions: the canopy must be dense enough for substantially complete blockage of direct sunlight, and the branches must not be so low that workers crouch or cannot sit up straight. A crew that picks its break tree at the tail gate briefing and points at it has satisfied the location requirement before a pop-up comes off the truck.
The mobile crew exception is where most line clearance work actually lands. The exception to (d)(1) and (d)(2) lets an employer that can demonstrate a shade structure is infeasible or unsafe use alternative procedures of equivalent protection. The FAQ names the category directly, giving meter readers and irrigation installers as examples of workers who constantly move from site to site, and it attaches a condition:
In these cases, the employer must document this determination and specify what alternatives to shade will be provided to afford equivalent protection.
Documented, and written into the plan. A crew clearing six spans before lunch fits the category exactly. The paperwork is the part that gets skipped.
Five minutes, plus the time it takes to get down
Employees shall be allowed and encouraged to take a preventative cool-down rest in the shade when they feel the need to do so to protect themselves from overheating. Such access to shade shall be permitted at all times. An individual employee who takes a preventative cool-down rest (A) shall be monitored and asked if he or she is experiencing symptoms of heat illness; (B) shall be encouraged to remain in the shade; and (C) shall not be ordered back to work until any signs or symptoms of heat illness have abated, but in no event less than 5 minutes in addition to the time needed to access the shade.
Read the last eleven words against a climber tied in at 55 feet. The five minutes begin when the trimmer reaches the shade. Descent, untying and the walk to the break tree are all additional. On this job the real cost of one cool-down rest is closer to twelve minutes than five, and a foreman who has priced it at five will resist the second one.
The monitoring duty falls on somebody other than the person resting. That employee has to be asked whether they have symptoms. If any are observed or reported, the Division expects continuous observation until they abate. Otherwise the FAQ accepts periodic monitoring.
A wage consequence rides along with this, and it hides in a different code. Labor Code section 226.7(a) defines "recovery period" as a cooldown period afforded an employee to prevent heat illness. Subsection (d) requires the period to be counted as hours worked with no deduction from wages. Subsection (c) does the rest:
If an employer fails to provide an employee a meal or rest or recovery period in accordance with a state law, including, but not limited to, an applicable statute or applicable regulation, standard, or order of the Industrial Welfare Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, or the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, the employer shall pay the employee one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of compensation for each workday that the meal or rest or recovery period is not provided.
That definition reaches every industry. A foreman who tells a trimmer to finish the limb first has created a Cal/OSHA exposure and a wage claim on the same afternoon.
95 degrees, or 96 on the Division's thermometer
Subsection (e) adds five requirements at 95 degrees, to the extent practicable.
1. Effective communication by voice, observation or electronic means, so employees can contact a supervisor; a cell phone only counts where reception is reliable. 2. Observation of employees for alertness and signs or symptoms of heat illness. 3.
One or more employees designated on each worksite as authorized to call emergency medical services, and other employees allowed to call when no designated employee is available. 4. Reminders throughout the shift to drink plenty of water. 5. Pre-shift meetings to review the high heat procedures, encourage water, and remind employees of their right to take a cool-down rest.
The temperature is the dry bulb reading taken in full sun with the sensor shielded, per the definition in subsection (b). The Heat SEP tells compliance officers what reading they need before writing a subsection (e) violation:
High-heat means a dry bulb temperature in excess of 95°F. Because the thermometers used by the Division are accurate to +0.9°F, a reading of 94°F or higher should be considered in the range of high-heat when considering OPUs. Note: when considering violations of 3395(e) High-heat procedures, CSHOs may need to measure temperatures of at least 96°F.
Ninety-six to cite the procedures, ninety-four to consider shutting the job down. The gap is instrument tolerance applied in two directions. An order that stops work protects people the same afternoon, so the officer is told to err low. A citation has to survive an appeal, so the reading has to clear the thermometer's error before anybody writes it.
Subsection (e)(2) offers four ways to satisfy the observation duty, and a line clearance crew already owns one of them. Section 2951(d) already posts a second qualified trimmer or trainee in unassisted voice range of each work location. Nominating that person as the heat buddy is free. The reverse is a separate question: a heat buddy placed for sightlines may stand too far off to give the immediate assistance an aerial rescue needs.
Subsection (e)(5)'s pre-shift meeting and section 2951(a)'s tail gate briefing are one meeting with two agendas. They run on different clocks. The 2951(a) briefing runs on the operation, so moving to a new circuit triggers a new one. The (e)(5) meeting runs on the forecast, so a hot Tuesday triggers one on a circuit the crew has been working since Monday.
Subsection (e) stops short of one thing for this crew. The mandatory ten-minute cool-down every two hours in subsection (e)(6) reaches employees employed in agriculture only. On a line clearance crew the rest in subsection (d)(3) is the one that governs, and the employee initiates it.
The directions to a span that has no address
Subsection (f) requires effective emergency response procedures. Two of its clauses decide whether they work.
Ensuring that effective communication by voice, observation, or electronic means is maintained so that employees at the work site can contact a supervisor or emergency medical services when necessary. An electronic device, such as a cell phone or text messaging device, may be used for this purpose only if reception in the area is reliable. If an electronic device will not furnish reliable communication in the work area, the employer will ensure a means of summoning emergency medical services.
Ensuring that, in the event of an emergency, clear and precise directions to the work site can and will be provided as needed to emergency responders.
A pole number is not an address. A distribution map routes a line crew; an ambulance dispatcher works from streets, landmarks and a direction of travel. Cal/OSHA states the fix plainly:
Mobile crews must be provided with a map of their location or detailed, clear, and precise directions that can be given to emergency responders.
So the truck carries the location in a form a dispatcher can use. Cross street and mileage from a named intersection, coordinates from the phone, the gate code, and whether the gate is locked. The FAQ adds two conditions. Where cell coverage is inadequate, the employer designates a person who can contact emergency services on the crew's behalf and give accurate directions. Where workers can reach emergency medical services directly, they must be allowed to do so before anyone calls a supervisor.
The Heat SEP attaches one more test, in a footnote, and it is the one supervisors fail:
The supervisor or other designated employee must be able to describe the appropriate first aid actions the employer would take until medical aid arrives. Simply indicating that they would call "911" is not adequate.
The inspector asks the foreman what happens in the minutes before the ambulance arrives. Shade, water, loosened clothing, cooling to the skin, and somebody staying with the affected employee are the answer. Subsection (f)(2)(C) requires that employee to be monitored, and requires onsite first aid or emergency medical services to be offered before they go home. That is the same standing duty sitting behind the first aid capability on the truck.
The first 14 days, and the ten degrees that make a heat wave
Subsection (g) is two sentences and a definition.
All employees shall be closely observed by a supervisor or designee during a heat wave. For purposes of this section only, "heat wave" means any day in which the predicted high temperature for the day will be at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit and at least ten degrees Fahrenheit higher than the average high daily temperature in the preceding five days.
An employee who has been newly assigned to a high heat area shall be closely observed by a supervisor or designee for the first 14 days of the employee's employment.
Note what triggers the first duty. Heat wave is defined on the predicted high. The obligation attaches the night before, when somebody reads the forecast, which is why subsection (h)(2)(D) makes weather monitoring a required supervisor training topic. An 81-degree day following a run of 70-degree days is a heat wave under this definition, and a crew that only reacts at 95 will miss it entirely.
The second sentence has a drafting seam in it. The trigger is new assignment to a high heat area. The clock is "the first 14 days of the employee's employment," which is a different event. Move a six-year trimmer from a coastal district to an inland one in July and the trigger fires while the clock has long since run out.
Cal/OSHA's FAQ reads it the sensible way, describing best practice as lessening work intensity "during a heat wave and during their first two weeks work in a hot environment." The Division's tree work guidance says to supervise newly hired employees even more closely on hot days. Both are guidance. An employer that observes the moved employee for two weeks is compliant on any reading, and the alternative is arguing a drafting seam in front of the Appeals Board.
The physiology in the definition explains the number. Acclimatization "peaks in most people within four to fourteen days of regular work for at least two hours per day in the heat." Fourteen days is the top of that range.
A recruit on a line clearance crew is running two clocks at once. This one, and the supervision a trainee's own permission to work rests on. They are separate requirements with separate records, and the second one runs on its own schedule.
Nine topics for the crew, four more for whoever runs the job
Subsection (h)(1) requires effective training before an employee begins work that should reasonably be anticipated to expose them to the risk of heat illness. That timing is the first failure point: the training is owed before the first hot day.
The nine topics:
1. Environmental and personal risk factors, and the added heat load caused by exertion, clothing and personal protective equipment. 2. The employer's procedures for water, shade, cool-down rests and access to first aid, and the employee's right to exercise these rights without retaliation. 3. The importance of frequent consumption of small quantities of water, up to 4 cups per hour. 4. The concept, importance and methods of acclimatization. 5.
The types of heat illness, the common signs and symptoms, the appropriate first aid, and that heat illness may progress quickly to life threatening illness. 6. The importance of immediately reporting symptoms in themselves or in co-workers. 7. The employer's procedures for responding to signs or symptoms. 8. The employer's procedures for contacting emergency medical services and transporting employees. 9. The employer's procedures for giving clear and precise directions to responders, including designating a person to ensure emergency procedures are invoked.
Topic 1 is the one this trade has to take seriously. Section 3395(h)(1)(A) names personal protective equipment as part of the heat load. A line clearance trimmer wears more of it than almost anyone else outdoors: chaps and a hard hat, a Class 2 garment when the job is on a road, and rubber gloves and sleeves when the work is close in. All of it stays on in the heat. The training has to say so, and the work schedule has to absorb it.
Subsection (h)(2) adds four topics for supervisors.
1. Everything required by subsection (h)(1). 2. The procedures the supervisor follows to implement the section. 3. The procedures to follow when an employee shows signs or reports symptoms. 4. How to monitor weather reports and how to respond to hot weather advisories.
The training record for section 3395 lives in section 3203(b)(2), which asks for four fields and a retention period: who was trained, on what dates, in what type of training, by which provider, held for at least a year. The rest of the crew's qualification paperwork sits in that same file.
One number explains why the supervisor half of this carries the weight. Cal/OSHA's FAQ reports that its 2006 heat illness analysis found 63 percent of the supervisors of workers who died from heat stroke had not been trained in heat illness prevention.
The plan, in two languages, on the truck
The employer shall establish, implement, and maintain, an effective heat illness prevention plan. The plan shall be in writing in both English and the language understood by the majority of the employees and shall be made available at the worksite to employees and to representatives of the Division upon request.
Section 3395(i) sets four minimum contents: water and shade procedures, the high heat procedures of subsection (e), emergency response procedures under subsection (f), and acclimatization methods under subsection (g). It may be folded into the section 3203 Injury and Illness Prevention Program.
Two sentences from Cal/OSHA decide whether a given plan passes.
The first is about content. "A heat illness prevention plan that is little more than a restatement of the safety orders does not satisfy the standard; instead, it must be specific and customized to the employer's operations." For a line clearance contractor, specific means naming who reads the forecast, what shade travels on which truck, how water gets up a hill, and what a foreman says on the phone to a dispatcher.
The second is about location. The FAQ accepts a plan accessible on a cell phone or other electronic device that workers can use on request. The plan travels with the crew.
Then the enforcement policy, which is the part a prime should know before scheduling an audit:
It is the policy of the Division to evaluate Heat Illness Prevention procedures during all inspections of employers with outdoor employees. At a minimum, CSHOs must review the employer's Heat Illness Prevention Plan for outdoor workplaces, regardless of weather conditions at the time of inspection.
Every inspection. A January visit about an aerial lift still pulls the heat plan. And the SEP tells the officer what to do when the plan is missing from the site: "If the employer does not have their Heat Illness Prevention Plan available at the inspection site, the employer should be cited for 3395(i)."
The order that stops the job
Heat is one of the few hazards where Cal/OSHA routinely shuts work down on the spot. The instrument is an Order Prohibiting Use under Labor Code section 6325, whose current text became operative January 1, 2024.
The SEP names four fundamental protective measures: water, shade, emergency preparedness, and training on drinking water and the signs and symptoms of heat illness. Then it sets the trigger:
For example, where the temperature at the worksite is 95°F and no shade and/or water are present at the worksite, an OPU will be issued.
The lower threshold is the one that catches this trade:
CSHOs must assess the need to issue an OPU if the temperature exceeds 80°F and one or more of the four fundamental protective measures are lacking and one of the following critical factors exists: 1. There is a heat wave OR high radiant heat or humidity; or 2. Employees are not acclimatized, have a heavy workload, OR are wearing PPE that interferes with cooling.
A trimmer running a saw aloft in chaps satisfies both halves of the second factor alone. At 81 degrees with the shade still strapped to the truck, the OPU test is met on the face of the policy.
What follows costs money and time on the ground. The employer transports any employee who lacks their own means of reaching a safe place. Those employees return to work once the employer has shown the Division sufficient evidence of corrective action. Labor Code section 6326 makes it a misdemeanor to enter or use the prohibited place of employment before it is made safe, or to remove the notice, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to a year in the county jail.
One point here is genuinely unsettled. The SEP says an OPU "may apply to the employer's operations statewide, depending on the degree to which circumstances indicate that the violation is site-specific or systemic." Labor Code section 6325(a) reads the other way on its face:
Such prohibition of use shall be limited to the immediate area in which the imminent hazard exists, and the division shall not prohibit any entry in or use of a place of employment, machine, device, apparatus, or equipment, or any part thereof, which is outside such area of imminent hazard.
A contractor served with a statewide OPU has an argument, and the place to make it is the hearing the Division's own Form 8 offers within 24 hours of request, then the Appeals Board.
The last enforcement fact is about odds. High-heat inspections are unannounced, run by officers working in pairs, targeted primarily at agricultural, construction and landscaping activities. Even a site that looks compliant from the road gets opened: "One out of every five sites that appear to be in compliance must be investigated."
Where the cab stops being outdoors
Section 3395's boundary is drawn in the indoor standard, not in itself. Section 3396 was filed and became operative on July 23, 2024, and its definition settles where one ends:
"Indoor" refers to a space that is under a ceiling or overhead covering that restricts airflow and is enclosed along its entire perimeter by walls, doors, windows, dividers, or other physical barriers that restrict airflow, whether open or closed. All work areas that are not indoor are considered outdoor and covered by section 3395.
A truck cab is under a covering and enclosed along its perimeter. Section 3396 applies to indoor work areas at or above 82 degrees, with an exception for incidental exposure of less than 15 minutes in any 60-minute period, and that exception explicitly "does not apply to … Vehicles without effective and functioning air conditioning."
For a vegetation crew this reduces to one practical rule. A cab used as the shade has to be running its air conditioner under section 3395's own definition. A cab the crew sits in for longer stretches, on the drive between circuits or through a lunch break, falls to section 3396 once the air conditioning stops working. Section 3396 allows its measures to be folded into the section 3395(i) plan, so this stays one document.
Where it bites
Four findings, in the order an inspection tends to produce them.
The plan, and where it is. The Division reviews it at every inspection of an outdoor employer, in any weather, whatever the inspection was opened for. A plan missing from the site is a section 3395(i) citation by policy. To count as a plan, it has to name this employer's trucks, forecasts and access roads.
The undocumented shade determination. A crew that moves every hour is precisely the case the infeasibility exception was written for, and the exception is conditioned on documenting the determination and specifying the alternative. Most contractors rely on the exception and leave the paragraph unwritten.
The directions. Ask the foreman to say aloud what they would give a dispatcher for the span they are standing under. A pole number or a circuit name leaves section 3395(f)(4) open, and the same gap surfaces again the first time the crew needs a rescue rather than an ambulance.
The five minutes. A cool-down rest is a recovery period under Labor Code section 226.7. Paid, counted as hours worked, and worth one additional hour of pay for each workday it is withheld. A production schedule that assumes the climber stays aloft through a 97-degree afternoon is a wage exposure before it is ever a citation.
Further reading
Section 2951: the nine subsections that govern a line clearance crew's day: The tail gate briefing the high-heat pre-shift meeting folds into, and the second person a buddy system can use.
Aerial rescue readiness on a line clearance crew: What the second person has to be able to do when the trimmer aloft stops answering.
First aid and CPR on a crew working near energized conductors: The first aid capability section 3395(f) assumes is already on the truck.
Frequently asked questions
Does section 3395 apply to utility line clearance tree trimming?
Yes. Section 3395(a)(1) applies to all outdoor places of employment, and it contains no exception for utility work, for emergency restoration, or for crews that move from span to span. Cal/OSHA's own Tree Work Safety Guide of March 2025 lists heat illness prevention as a common tree work safety topic and puts section 3395 in its table of other commonly applicable Title 8 sections.
Do the high-heat procedures at 95 degrees apply to a line clearance crew?
Subsection (e) binds five listed industries: agriculture, construction, landscaping, oil and gas extraction, and transportation or delivery of heavy materials. Section 3395(b) defines landscaping and does not define construction. A line clearance contractor usually lands inside at least one of the two, and Cal/OSHA's Pocket Guide for the Construction Industry indexes line clearance tree trimming operations at section 2951. The compliance officer classifies the work at the time of inspection, and the Appeals Board decides it on appeal.
How much drinking water does a three-person tree crew need on the truck?
Section 3395(c) requires one quart per employee per hour for the entire shift where water is not plumbed. That is two gallons per employee over an eight-hour shift, so six gallons for a three-person crew, or seven and a half gallons over a ten-hour shift. An employer may start with less only if it has effective procedures for replenishment during the shift.
Can the bucket truck cab count as the shade?
Only while it is air conditioned and the air conditioner is running. The definition of shade in section 3395(b) states that a car sitting in the sun does not provide acceptable shade to a person inside it unless the car is running with air conditioning. Cal/OSHA's outdoor heat FAQ adds that the air conditioner has to run throughout the workday, and that the area underneath mobile equipment does not satisfy the shade requirement.
What does the Heat Illness Prevention Plan have to contain, and where does it have to be?
Section 3395(i) requires water and shade procedures, the high heat procedures of subsection (e), emergency response procedures under subsection (f), and acclimatization methods under subsection (g). It must be in writing in English and the language understood by the majority of the employees, and available at the worksite to employees and to the Division on request. Cal/OSHA's enforcement policy directs the compliance officer to cite section 3395(i) when the plan is not available at the inspection site.
