The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on October 27 to protect workers from hazardous heat conditions in indoor and outdoor work settings. With this release, OSHA begins the rulemaking process for adopting a standard specific to heat-related injury and prevention in the workplace. According to OSHA, “heat is the leading cause of death among all weather-related phenomena, and it is becoming more dangerous as 18 of the last 19 years were the hottest on record.”
Some of the suggestions OSHA has provided on its website (osha.gov) to prevent heat illness include:
- Establishing a heat illness prevention program
- Providing training about hazardous heat conditions and how to prevent them
- Providing access to cool water to workers (at least one pint of water per hour)
OSHA is also encouraging the public to review and submit comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking, identified by Docket No. OSHA-2021-0009, at www.regulations.gov by December 27, 2021. For more information about facilities management and preventing heat injury or illness in the workplace, please contact Vanguard Resources at (210) 495-1950 or email us at info@vanguardresources.com.
*Information from this article was found from https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure/rulemaking
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