The US Department of Labor published a proposed rule on July 1 to protect workers from illness and death caused by excessive heat. Although industry groups oppose it, the Labor Department says the rule, if enacted, would substantially reduce workplace heat injuries, illnesses and deaths.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, cause excessively hot working conditions more than 3,000 days off work annually, and workers in the construction industry are among those most at risk of being hospitalized or dying as a result of heat exposure. In its more than 1,000-page preamble to the regulatory text, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration says the true injury and fatality rates are likely underreported.
The proposed standard would apply to all employers who perform outdoor and indoor work in the general industry, construction, marine and agricultural sectors. Short-term employees, emergency responders and workers in indoor locations below 80°F would be excluded.
Rule requirements
Under the rule, employers would have to develop an injury and illness prevention plan to control heat hazards in workplaces affected by excessive heat, anything above the 80°F threshold. The plan would require employers to assess heat risks and, when heat increases risks to workers, implement potable water requirements, breaks and indoor heat control. It would also require a plan to protect new or returning workers unaccustomed to working in high heat conditions.
“Workers across the country are passing out, suffering from heatstroke and dying from heat exposure just doing their jobs, and something needs to be done to protect them,” said Doug Parker, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Labor, occupational health and safety. He added that the rule not only protects workers, but is “practical and workable for employers.”
Workers’ safety groups praised the rule. “We are motivated and encouraged by the latest news from OSHA, as it marks a vital advance in worker safety,” said Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of the National Council on Occupational Safety and Health, a coalition of workers and occupational health advocates. safety “Extreme heat poses serious risks, including heat exhaustion, heat stroke and deaths, affecting both outdoor and indoor environments. As climate change increases global temperatures, comprehensive heat protection standards are increasingly urgent”.
Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, notes that people who work outdoors have a 35% higher risk of dying from heat exposure than the general population. “The deaths of America’s outdoor workers each year are largely preventable if employers meet workers’ basic needs for water, shade and rest,” he said in a statement.
Industry groups oppose the rule, saying it lacks the flexibility employers need. Greg Sizemore, vice president of health, safety, environment and workforce development at Associated Builders and Contractors, says employers should be able to develop their own safety plans that target specific project sites. “Our members work to ensure workplaces are safe and implement best practices for working in extreme heat that focus on the individual worker, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control,” he said in a statement
Sizemore added that “protections must be flexible in response to the fluid nature of the construction environment, and unfortunately, some of the unworkable provisions in the proposed rule could weaken the contractor’s efforts to prevent stress by warmth to the workers”.
Jordan Barab, a former assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, says the final fate of the heat proposal is unclear. The rule would not become final before the end of the year, and a new administration would likely overturn the proposal, he says.
If the rule is finalized, it will inevitably face legal challenges, he says, adding that the proposal is the first OSHA rule to be issued in the “post-Chevron era,” referring to the Supreme Court’s 28 june Loper Bright vs. Raimondo decision
Barab says that absent the deference to agency opinion that the Chevron doctrine allowed, it’s unclear what criteria judges will use to determine the legality of OSHA’s heat standard. “There’s an incredible amount of work and all kinds of science behind these issues,” he says, but depending on what court challenges are heard, some judges “might decide they know more about how to protect workers than the experts do scientists and OSHA.”
