OSHA Extends Comment Period For Heat Injury And Illness Prevention Initiative

Similar to the ETS comment period extension for the now-reinstated COVID-19 vaccine mandate, facility cleaning managers have a similar standard to put on their radar for frontline workers. 

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is extending the period for submitting comments on the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings. Comments on the ANPRM must now be submitted by Jan. 26, 2022.

The 30-day extension provides stakeholders more time to review the ANPRM and collect information and data necessary for comment.

Currently, OSHA does not have a heat-specific standard to protect millions of workers in indoor and outdoor work settings from exposure to hazardous heat conditions. In recent months, OSHA has initiated several efforts to protect workers from heat-related illnesses and deaths while working in hazardously hot indoor and outdoor environments. 

In addition to pursuing a heat-specific workplace rule, OSHA instituted a heat-related enforcement initiative and plans to issue a National Emphasis Program for heat-related safety efforts in 2022.

The agency began the process of considering a heat-specific workplace rule to address heat-related illnesses when it published the ANPRM on Oct. 27, 2021.

Submit comments, identified by Docket No. OSHA-2021-0009, electronically at www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. The Federal e-Rulemaking Portal is the only way to submit comments on this ANPRM.