You can’t accuse the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration of surprising employers with its proposed thermal safety rule. Preliminary ideas for this rule have been previewed by the agency for years. The question, now that the rule has been formally presented and published, is what effect it will have on workers, the problems it will pose for employers – even those who are already up to speed with thermal safety protection – and whether the entire effort will be put on hold or mooted by legal action following the recent US Supreme Court Loper ruling on regulations (see story, p. 8), or the potential for a new administration to take over.
Fortunately, ENR has already had more than a few seasons of writing about safety rulemaking, starting with its veteran Washington Bureau staff, led by Tom Ichniowski. In the summer of 2018, he wrote about a coalition of groups and individuals asking OSHA to create the first national heat safety standard, including a provision to stop work when temperatures are excessive. In 2021, with a new administration in Washington, DC, online editor James Leggate chimed in with a story on OSHA’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking to develop a standard and OSHA’s release of an enforcement initiative on heat-related illness and death. This was the first time the 80°F heat index threshold, a feature of the current proposed rule, appeared in ENR.
Most recently, our Washington, DC-based senior editor Pam McFarland wrote about OSHA’s just-released proposed current heat safety rule, including its important section on the chances of a new administration abandoning it or legal challenges. You can read about it on p. 17. Other ENR staff have also joined the discussions. Senior Editor Emell Adolphus and ENR Southeast Editor Derek Lacey recently discussed heat safety with David Dickson, director of safety at consultant Dewberry. Listen to it here.
Whatever happens, the lengthy federal rulemaking process, as well as lobbying, debate, and legal battles at the state and local levels as well, are opportunities to explore in detail what needs to be done to protect workers who can be solicited reasonably to employers. We want to know what you think about the OSHA rule and about US thermal protection issues in general.
