Originally scheduled to expire on December 30, the comment period for a much-debated Occupational Safety and Health Administration workplace heat protocol has been extended to January 14 of next year.
In announcing the extended comment period, Douglas Parker, OSHA assistant secretary, remarked that “Reducing the dangers of workplace heat exposure and illness is critical to saving lives and preventing workers from suffering needless illnesses.”
The two-week extension, continued Parker, will pull the comment period past the busy holiday season and “help ensure that stakeholders can share valuable insights we need to craft a rule that protects workers from extreme heat indoors and outdoors effectively.”
As originally published in the Federal Register, the officially named Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings proposed that industries with a labor force that works outside, the construction, maritime, and agriculture sectors put in place plans to “evaluate and control heat hazards in their workplace.”
The original 1,000-page OSHA heat proposal has since generated no small amount of comment. In a statement issued in July, Greg Sizemore, vice president of health, safety, environment, and workforce development for the Associated Builders and Contractors, remarked that the group “continues to believe employers should equip their employees and leadership teams to develop their own safety plans, unique to their job sites.”
The Associated General Contractors of America, also in a statement, noted that OSHA’s proposed heat standards were generally already established by contractors as “part of their general duty obligations to protect workers from hazards associated with high temperatures.”
The AGC criticized the OSHA proposal for not addressing the “disparate impacts of heat in various parts of the country. The impact on worker safety of a 90-degree day in Mississippi are different than a 90-degree day in Alaska.”
Construction companies have maintained that they have long been prepared for protecting their workers during times of extreme heat. Such companies, noted the publication Construction Dive in June, “have plans to beat the heat, educate teams, and keep workers cool.”
Many companies have expressed worries about a possible OSHA overreach that could see entire projects shut down by agency regulators, with imposed acclimatization procedures for workers, and additional recordkeeping mandates.
In a press release dated December 3, the Associated Builders and Contractors encouraged its members to take advantage of OSHA’s extended public comment period, while also noting that “public stakeholders can submit comments as well.”
December 10, 2024
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
