Coalition of Attorneys General Petition OSHA to Adopt Emergency Temporary Standard for Extreme Heat
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been petitioned by a coalition of 11 state attorneys general to implement an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect workers from excessive heat exposure on the job. The coalition is led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was joined by the state attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that extreme summer heat is becoming much more common, and climatologists predict that extreme heat events will increase in the coming years due to climate change. National Center for Health Statistics data shows that 1,700 people died from heat-related injuries in 2022 compared to 454 in 2000 and each year, 170,000 workers are made sick, injured, or killed due to exposure to excessive heat in the workplace.
Employers can’t change the weather but they can prevent injuries from extreme heat in the workplace. Some U.S. states have laws governing exposure or extreme heat in the workplace, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires employers to provide a place of employment free from recognized hazards, but there is no federal law that specifically applies to extreme heat exposure. OHSA has uploaded information to its website on “Working in Outdoor and Indoor Heat Environments,” which educates employers and individuals about the dangers of working in hot environments, but the state attorneys general want OHSA to take action.
The state attorneys general wrote to Julie Su, Acting Secretary of Labor, and Douglas L. Parker, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health at the United States Department of Labor calling for them to promulgate an emergency temporary standard for extreme heat beginning May 1, 2024, which should cover, at a minimum, farmworkers, and construction workers. OSHA has previously acknowledged that the enforcement of heat hazards under the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act is difficult as there is no defined heat standard. It is therefore necessary for OSHA to prove on a case-by-case basis that a heat hazard existed in the workplace when the injury or fatality occurred. Employers have also not been provided with specific guidance on what constitutes a heat hazard under the Act. An emergency temporary standard would give OSHA stronger enforcement power and would provide employers with specific requirements and guidelines for protecting workers from extreme heat.
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OSHA has been urged to issue an emergency temporary standard for occupational heat exposure that applies when the heat index reaches 80°F, after which point there are increased rates of serious heat-related illnesses. In an announcement about the petition, Attorney General James listed 5 cases of heat-related deaths in the workplace in the United States in the summer of 2023. The attorneys general are also calling for Congress to pass – and President Biden to sign – the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act, which directs OSHA to establish short- and long-term measures to protect workers from extreme heat. Asunción Valdivia, was a farmworker who died of heatstroke after picking grapes for 10 hours in extreme heat.
