US Department of Labor Initiates Rulemaking to Protect Workers From Heat Hazards Amid Rising Temperatures
10/27/2021
US Department of Labor initiates rulemaking to protect workers, outdoors and indoors, from heat hazards amid rising temperatures
Coincides with Biden-Harris administration interagency effort to protect workers, communities
WASHINGTON, DC – Record-breaking heat in the U.S. in 2021 endangered millions of workers exposed to heat illness and injury in both indoor and outdoor work environments. Workers in outdoor and indoor work settings without adequate climate-controlled environments are at risk of hazardous heat exposure, and workers of color are exposed disproportionately to hazardous levels of heat in essential jobs across these work settings.
In concert with a Biden-Harris
administration interagency effort and its commitment
to workplace safety, climate resilience and environmental justice, the
U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration
is publishing an Advance Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor
Work Settings on Oct. 27,
2021. Currently, OSHA does not have a specific standard for
hazardous heat conditions and this action begins the process to consider
a heat-specific workplace rule.
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