That’s right, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is cracking down on heat stress in the workplace. OSHA launched the National Emphasis Program (NEP) Outdoor and Indoor Heat-Related Hazards with the intentions to protect millions of workers from heat illness and injuries in both indoor and outdoor workplaces.

Through this program, OSHA will conduct heat-related workplace inspections, requiring each region to raise its number of heat-related inspections by 100 percent over the past five-year average. The NEP defines “heat priority days” when the heat index is 80°F or higher.

What it means for you

Employers are encouraged to reduce employee heat exposure and implement early interventions to prevent illness and death among workers during high heat conditions, such as:

• Implementing a heat stress program,
• Supplying employees with water during work operations,
• Implementing administrative or engineering controls, and/or
• Providing PPE to protect employees from the sun or heat.

No heat standard yet

Keep top of mind that OSHA doesn’t have a heat standard just yet, but employers still need to keep employees safe on the job. Heat related citations are issued under OSHA's General Duty Clause so implementing a written program for heat stress can reduce the risk employees fall ill to:

• Heat exhaustion,
• Heat rash,
• Fainting,
• Heat stroke, or worse,
• Death.