News and Updates
Category: heat illness
OSHA Launches Emphasis Program on Heat Illness
There’s no shortage of OSHA emphasis programs lately, and now they’re giving you another thing to worry about. Earlier this week, the Department of Labor announced that OSHA has launched a new National Emphasis Program (NEP) to protect workers from both indoor and outdoor heat hazards. They’ll be conducting heat-related workplace inspections to get ahead of avoidable injuries, illness – or in some cases, fatalities. DoL Secretary Marty Walsh made the announcement at an event in Philadelphia on April 12, with the initiative already having been made effective on April 8. The plan is to encourage employers to take proactive steps to avoid illness and death for workers that are exposed to high heat conditions. The average number of deaths caused by heat-related illness has doubled since the 1990s. Employers who operate outdoors regularly are typically aware of these risks, but companies where most employees work indoors haven’t considered themselves at risk of answering to OSHA on this. Many large manufacturers are still operating with no air conditioning in their factories, and may only be providing bits and pieces of what employees need to stay safe in these stifling environments. The program will involve OSHA inspecting indoor and outdoor employer sites across 70+ high-risk industries, specifically in areas where an official heat warning or advisory has been issued. If it’s 804° F or higher, inspectors and com
More OSHA Updates: New Administration, New Standards, HCS Updates and More
New Administration Former member of the Biden-Harris transition team Douglas L. Parker is the Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, Department of Labor He currently serves as chief of California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), a position he has held since 2019. Prior to his appointment to Cal/OSHA, Parker was executive director of Worksafe, an Oakland, California-based legal services provider. Workplace safety enforcement will be more aggressive and robust under an OSHA governed by the Biden administration, and Parker will be tasked with overseeing those enforcement efforts. Employers should prepare for these more aggressive policies by ensuring that their safety and health programs are compliant with rules that are still in place and govern American workplaces. Employers should work to identify and eliminate workplace safety hazards. The new administration has made it clear they intend to double the number of OSHA investigators to enforce the law and existing standards and guidelines. “It will likely take around 18 months for new inspectors to be trained and begin conducting inspections. Once those new compliance officers are in the field, employers can expect more OSHA inspectors knocking on their doors.”1 Secretary of Labor Sworn In Marty J. Walsh was sworn in as the nation’s 29th Secretary of Labor on March 23, and immediately shared a public message about his commitment to America’s w
