OSHA Releases Proposed Heat Standard
OSHA’s new proposed rule, Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings, has been submitted for publication to the Office of the Federal Register. While the official proposed rule is not yet published, an unofficial version of the regulatory text is available as a PDF from OSHA’s webpage on the heat rulemaking. The agency will begin accepting comments on the proposal once the official version is published in the Federal Register.
OSHA notes that heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S. The proposed rule’s release comes at a time when dangerous heat levels are affecting large portions of the U.S., including both coasts and some southern states. The agency expects that if the rule is finalized, it will help protect approximately 36 million workers from heat and “substantially reduce” workplace heat injuries, illnesses, and deaths. Provisions of the proposed rule would require affected employers to develop and implement site-specific heat injury and illness prevention plans as well as plans to acclimatize new or returning workers who may be unaccustomed to working in high-heat conditions. The proposed rule also addresses requirements for drinking water, rest breaks, and control of indoor heat.
The standard would apply to all employers with some exceptions. Examples of situations in which the standard would not apply include work activities that are not expected to expose workers to temperatures above the “initial heat trigger,” which OSHA defines as a heat index of 80 F or a wet bulb globe temperature equal to the heat stress alert limits recommended by NIOSH for unacclimatized workers. Emergency response activities of workplace emergency response teams, emergency medical services, or technical search and rescue are examples of additional instances for which the standard would not apply.
OSHA’s rulemaking process for a heat standard began in October 2021 with an advance notice of proposed rulemaking. The Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health, which advises OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor on matters related to standards and policy, unanimously recommended in April that the agency advance the proposed rule.
Learn more about OSHA’s heat rulemaking from its website.
Related: Articles published in The Synergist in April 2016 and April 2020 discuss protecting workers in hot environments and critical factors for heat stress assessment and prevention, respectively. An article published in the June/July 2022 issue of the magazine focuses on reducing heat burden from personal protective equipment and other factors.