With summer heat intensifying across much of the U.S., it may be a good time to review the current status of regulatory efforts intended to protect workers from exposure to heat-related dangers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s heat exposure standard remains in the proposed rulemaking stage. The Biden-era rule stands little chance of finalization in its current form. Employers complained that the proposal lacked sufficient flexibility and did not take into account varying weather conditions across the U.S. In addition, limits on issuance of new safety regulations imposed by the Trump administration make completion of the nationwide standard unlikely.

In place of a final safety standard, OSHA issued a revised National Emphasis Program (NEP) in April focusing enforcement efforts on 55 named industries considered to have the greatest exposure to heat safety hazards. The NEP imposes additional inspections for employers in these industries, especially when hot weather conditions exist. In the absence of a safety standard, OSHA uses the general duty clause (GDC) to cite employers for failure to recognize and implement a heat illness prevention program based on OSHA recommendations and industry practices. OSHA has a higher legal burden to prove GDC violations as compared to a regulatory safety standard.

In the absence of a federal heat exposure safety standard, a number of state OSHA programs have adopted their own rules. These states are California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington, with others considering similar regulations. As a result, employers with multistate operations may have to comply with an increasing number of specific state requirements relating to their heat exposure control plans.

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