New Mexico advances the thermal safety rule

Brief of diving:

• The Occupational Safety and Office of New Mexico has filed a request to the State Environmental Improvement Board to adopt a proposed rule around Heat disease and prevention of jobs to workplaceFor a launch of the New Mexico Environment Department.
• The proposal solves the construction as industries with the highest risk of illness and injury related to heat.
• If the state adopts the rule, it would join five others (California, Nevada, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington) who have promulgated these standards around thermal safety.

Divide vision:

The New Mexico Health Department reported that there were more than 800 visits to the emergency rooms related to the heat in 2024, according to the release. Extreme heat is the leading cause of climate-related deaths in the United States by national meteorological service, and US southwest is among the fastest regions of the country, according to the statement.

“New Mexico is hotter and more dryer than in recent years due to the impacts of climate change,” said Kristy Peck, head of the Security and Security Office at work, in the statement. “Employers need to protect their employees from the reality from heat -related injuries.”

The proposed rule would require entrepreneurs to take action to protect workers from heat -related diseases and injuries, including:

• Taking time to acclimatize -in hot environments.
• Providing access to clean and fresh drinking water throughout the working day.
• Mandating frequent rest periods in the shade.

The presentation to the Board of Environmental Improvement is the first step of the process. The petition calls for a two -day hearing before the Council in June. If the rule is adopted, it would come into force in July.

The next step is for the State Osha agency to open comments on the rule for 60 days of April and May.

National standard on ice

Federal Osha worked in its own national safety standard in relation to heat. The rule, defended by the administration of former President Joe Biden, is Is not likely to advance Now that Donald Trump is president, they said experts at Construction Dive.

This rule probably sits in purgatory. Public comments closed on December 30, 2024, and it may take months to review them and evaluate them before the end of the rule, which the Trump government has not indicated that it will pursue. But the proposal of New Mexico has some of the same specific orientations.

For example, the state rule would order employers to have a Disease Prevention and Heat PlanThat it should be in books when temperatures cross a certain threshold in the heat index, which indicates a high risk of injury or worker’s diseases.

The rule of New Mexico also exposes specifications for acclimatization, including the way new workers should be used to high temperatures and how to monitor them.

But these similarities to national rule are also what caused the Federal Osha government to face a scrutiny. Critics said that particularities would make it excessively difficult and difficult to implement.

“I think this was too detailed, too problematic for compliance, I think he prepared businessmen for failure,” said Phillip Russell, Osha’s lawyer and Washington’s Occupation, Litigation and Adviser’s Adviser, DC’s firm, Ogletree Deakins, in the federal rule.