Federal OSHA Releases Draft Heat Illness Standard

With many parts of the country hitting record temperatures year after year, the pressure has ramped up on individual states and Federal OSHA to take action to protect workers. We’ve seen states like Oregon take decisive action and states like Florida jeopardize workers’ lives by outlawing life-saving heat protections.

Now, the Department of Labor and Federal OSHA have officially released a proposed heat illness prevention standard. If finalized, this standard will provide protections for approximately 36 million workers across a variety of industries, including construction.

“We commend the Biden Administration and OSHA on this first-ever federal standard to address the dangers of heat illness on worker health and safety,” said LIUNA General President and LHSFNA Labor Co-Chairman Brent Booker. “This new standard will help address the dangerous conditions facing LIUNA members and other construction workers who often work in high-heat conditions. We need the clear, enforceable and uniform protections that a federal heat rule would provide.”

Highlights of the Proposed Federal OSHA Heat Standard

• Heat injury and illness prevention plan (HIIPP): Employers must implement a HIIPP that details the policies and procedures that will be used to comply with the standard. This plan must designate at least one Heat Safety Coordinator. If the employer has more than 10 employees, the HIIPP must be in writing. In addition, employers must involve workers and their representatives in the development of this plan.
• Trigger points: The proposed rule includes an initial heat trigger at 80℉ and a high-heat trigger at 90℉.
  • Actions at 80℉ and above: Employers must provide one quart of cool drinking water per employee per hour and shaded or air-conditioned break areas. Employers must allow and encourage employees to take rest breaks in these areas when needed to prevent overheating. According to the standard, these rest breaks must be paid time.
  • Actions at 90℉ and above: Employers must implement mandatory 15-minute rest breaks at least every two hours (an unpaid meal break can count as a rest break). Employers must also monitor workers for the signs and symptoms of heat illness and remind workers about these signs as well. Warning signs must be placed in any indoor work areas with ambient temperatures that regularly exceed 120℉.
  • Tracking heat: Employers may use either the heat index or the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT). The latter is favored by many health and safety professionals because it accounts for the numerous risk factors that contribute to the overall heat load on workers, including wind, sun angle and cloud cover in addition to temperature and humidity. WBGT provides a more accurate assessment of heat exposure and risk level.
• Acclimatization: When workers do die of heat illness, it’s often in the first days of a heat wave or the initial few days on a project. Employers must allow new and returning unacclimatized workers time to gradually acclimate to the heat.
• Training: Employers must inform supervisors and workers about the requirements of the standard and how to recognize heat-related illnesses.
• Emergency response: Employers must have a response plan when workers show signs or symptoms of heat illness, including how to get them emergency care when necessary.

As OSHA standards go, this one should be fairly straightforward for employers to implement. The fundamentals of water, rest, shade and acclimatization are easy to provide and relatively inexpensive. The trigger points and other requirements are easy to understand, even for supervisors without a safety and health background. All in all, these are common sense steps that every employer should be taking anyway if they have workers spending hours in hot environments. It’s simply the right and decent thing to do.

“As the most pro-worker administration in history, we are committed to ensuring that those doing difficult work in some of our economy’s most critical sectors are valued and kept safe in the workplace,” said Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su. 

Next Steps and Rulemaking Timeline

While this proposed rule is a major step forward to protect workers from heat illness, there are still several steps in the federal rulemaking process before it can be finalized. OSHA must now begin a 120-day public comment period, with public hearings to follow. After an additional comment period, OSHA can send the final standard to the White House for review and approval.

Given all those steps, this proposed standard won’t be finalized until at least 2025. The outcome of this year’s presidential election in November could also affect that timeline; Republican administrations haven’t tended to release new OSHA standards, and President Trump’s first term was no different.

In the meantime, Federal OSHA will continue to conduct heat-related inspections under its National Emphasis Program on heat, which is scheduled to run through April 2025, and can issue heat illness citations under the OSH Act’s general duty clause.

LHSFNA Resources

The LHSFNA recommends all LIUNA signatory employers that have workers exposed to heat develop a written heat injury an illness prevention plan, even if they are below the 10 worker requirement in this proposed standard. The Fund’s OSH Division is available to assist LIUNA signatory contractors in writing or reviewing these plans. Contact us here for assistance.

LIUNA signatory contractors and affiliates can also order the Fund’s Heat Illness Prevention Toolbox Talk, Preventing Heat-Related Illnesses in Construction pamphlet and Heat Illness in Construction Health Alert by logging in and clicking on Publications.

[Nick Fox]