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Adequate water is required at all times, regardless of outdoor temperature and must be made available at no cost to the employee.
Water is the body's single best defense against heat other than removing heat exposure itself. In conditions of high heat and strenuous work, the human body can lose over a quart of fluid per hour just by sweating. Continuous replacement of this lost fluid is critical to allowing the body to maintain the life-preserving cooling benefits of perspiration. This is why it is so important to ensure the presence of, ready access to, and consumption of pure, fresh, and cool drinking water.
The water must be potable (i.e., fit to drink), fresh, pure, suitably cool, and provided to employees free of charge. Water must be located as close as it is feasible to place it to the areas where employees are working. The purpose of these requirements is to encourage workers to drink water often and avoid making the workers interrupt their work in order to do so. To ensure that water is fresh, pure, and suitably cool, Cal/OSHA advises employers or supervisors to visually examine and smell/taste the water and pour some on their skin.