April 24th, 2025
10:00 AM PT
As temperatures begin to rise, now is the time to remind employees about the importance of heat illness prevention. Although FedOSHA made tremendous efforts towards promulgating a heat illness prevention standard for both outdoor and indoor work settings during the Biden Administration, it stopped a little short of the finish line. Most recently, it requested public comments on its proposed rule, which were due on January 14, 2025, and scheduled an informal public hearing, coming up on June 16, 2025. While we do not expect much activity on the rulemaking end this term, FedOSHA still has many enforcement tools in its toolbox.
Additionally, many OSH State Plan states have their own heat illness prevention standards. These include, for example, California (separate standards for outdoor and indoor heat), Washington (outdoor heat), Oregon (single standard for both outdoor and indoor heat), Minnesota (indoor heat), and, newly adopted at the end of 2024, Maryland (single standard for both outdoor and indoor heat) and Nevada (single standard for both outdoor and indoor heat). Of course, these standards apply to employers in their respective states, regardless of FedOSHA’s lack of a current standard.
Employers should start getting ready to implement heat illness prevention and mitigation measures now, first and foremost, to protect their employees, and to avoid potential OSHA citations. Join us for our webinar discussing FedOSHA’s heat illness rulemaking – its status, scope and what it may require – as well as the other significant steps Federal and State OSHAs are taking to address heat illness.
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