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More than 400 workers died due to heat exposure between 2011 and 2021, according to federal records.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been crafting new heat-specific rules since 2021 at the direction of President Biden. It’s unclear exactly what those rules would be, but they would likely trigger things like required rest and water breaks when the heat index reaches certain thresholds.
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It takes an average of seven years for OSHA to create a new national standard. Five states have created their own and several more are close to adopting them, says Anastasia Christman at the National Employment Law Project.
“Part of it is workers have found their voice and their power in the last say, decade, and have really started to understand that the best way to address these problems is to speak out about them together,” said Christman.
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