OSHA Seeks Feedback on Proposals to Address Hazards of Exposure to Heat in the Workplace

December 19, 2024

BY Jonathan Lips

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A proposed OHSA rule seeks to protect employees in indoor and outdoor work settings from heat-related injuries and illnesses. The comment period is open through January 14, 2025

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) is encouraging comments on its September 2024 notice of proposed rulemaking concerning Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings. In announcing the proposal, OSHA noted that workers in outdoor and indoor work settings without adequate climate controls are at risk of hazardous heat exposure, which can cause a number of adverse health effects, including heat stroke and even death, if not treated properly.

Scope of the Proposal

The standard would specify employer obligations and measures necessary to effectively protect employees from hazardous heat, including the creation of a plan to evaluate and control heat hazards in their workplace. OSHA seeks to provide protection while accounting for different work areas, anticipated exposures, and other conditions across employers.

It would apply to all employers conducting outdoor and indoor work in all general industry, construction, maritime, and agriculture sectors where OSHA has jurisdiction.

However, OSHA is proposing to exclude the following from the rule: short duration employee exposures to heat, emergency response activities, work at indoor sites kept below 80°F, telework, and indoor sedentary work activities.

What the Proposed Standard Would Require

The proposed rule is a programmatic standard that requires employers to create a heat injury and illness prevention plan to evaluate and control heat hazards in their workplace. It establishes requirements for identifying heat hazards, implementing engineering and work practice control measures at or above two heat trigger levels (an initial heat trigger and a high heat trigger), providing training to employees and supervisors, and retaining records.

Specifically, the proposed standard would require employers to:

1) Develop and implement a work site heat injury and illness prevention plan with site-specific information to evaluate and control heat hazards in their workplace. OSHA is not requiring a particular form for the evaluation, and the agency states that it understands that the plan must be adaptable to the physical characteristics of the work site and the job tasks performed by employees, as well as the hazards identified by the employer.

2) Identify heat hazards in both outdoor and indoor work sites. For outdoor work sites, employers would be required to monitor heat conditions by tracking local heat index forecasts or measuring heat index or other measures. And for indoor work sites, employers would be required to identify work areas with the potential for hazardous heat exposure, develop and implement a monitoring plan, and seek employee input.

3) Implement control measures at or above an "initial heat trigger" (one measure of which would be a heat index of 80°F), such as access to cool drinking water, break areas with cooling measures, indoor work area controls, acclimatization protocols for new and returning employees, and paid rest breaks if needed to prevent overheating.

4) Implement additional control measures at or above a "high heat trigger" (one measure of which would be a heat index of 90°F), such as mandatory rest breaks of 15 minutes at least every two hours, observation for signs and symptoms of heat-related illness, and issuance of hazard alerts.

5) Take steps if an employee is experiencing signs and symptoms of a heat-related illness or a heat emergency and develop a heat emergency response plan.

6) Provide training on heat-related injury and illness prevention. The proposal addresses the topics to be addressed in training, the types of employees who are to be trained, the frequency of training, triggers for supplemental training, and how training is to be conducted.

6) Have and maintain written or electronic records of onsite temperature measurement data, when applicable to the employer in question.

7) Ensure that all requirements are at no cost to employees.

Implementation Timeline

If OSHA finalizes the proposed standard, it would be effective 60 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register, and it would require employers to comply with all requirements of the standard 90 days after the effective date - in total: 150 days after the date of publication of the final standard in the Federal Register.

OSHA has preliminarily concluded that this period would be sufficient time for employers to familiarize themselves with the standard, then develop a heat injury and illness prevention plan, identify heat hazards in their workplaces, implement the protective measures required under the standard, and provide required training to employees.

Public Feedback

OSHA encourages all interested stakeholders to participate in this rulemaking by submitting comments, stating that "input will help OSHA develop a final rule that adequately protects workers, is feasible for employers, and is based on the best available evidence."

The comment period is open through January 14, 2025, and LeadingAge intends to submit a letter.

OSHA also announced recently that it will hold an informal public hearing, to receive presentations or testimony concerning the proposed rule, beginning June 16, 2025. This suggests that OSHA does not intend to rush the proposal.

It remains to be seen how the incoming Trump administration will view the proposed rule, whether OSHA will continue to advance it, and - if it does advance - whether the agency will ultimately move a different or scaled back proposal.