Momentum Builds for Indoor Heat Safety Regulations

Momentum Builds for Indoor Heat Safety Regulations

Hotter weather is driving new consideration of heat safety regulations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is scheduled to issue a request for information (RFI) for a  possible indoor and outdoor standard in October.  Meanwhile, last week the State of Washington announced its intent to pursue an indoor heat rule. California could enact their indoor heat rule in the coming months, a regulation the state has contemplated for five years.

Earlier in the summer, acting OSHA chief Jim Frederick announced the agency’s intent to develop a nationwide standard that would apply to high-heat conditions in indoor and outdoor settings. In 2019, a decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) in A.H. Sturgill Roofing Co. v. Secretary of Labor set a high bar for the agency to apply its general duty clause to cases involving high temperatures, and in 2020, an OSHRC administrative law judge ruled in a separate case that OSHA could not rely on a National Weather Service guide to determine the severity of heat exposures.

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