Democratic members of Congress are calling on the Biden administration to establish heat safety regulations for workers as the U.S. continues to deal with a deadly heatwave.
The group of 112 wants President Joe Biden to back an OSHA heat safety standard for both indoor and outdoor workplaces, according to Reuters.
They also asked OSHA to issue new standards covering:
- adequate water supplies for workers
- sheltered rest breaks
- medical training to identify heat-related illnesses, and
- a plan for workplaces to adjust their operations during times of dangerously high heat.
These lawmakers cited two heat-related deaths in Texas involving a U.S. Postal Service worker who died on his route in extreme heat and an electrical lineman who died from heat exhaustion while restoring power.
OSHA is being asked to model these standards after the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatalities Prevention Act, which was named after the death of a California farm worker who died in 2004 after picking grapes for 10 hours in triple digit temperatures. That bill was introduced in 2022 but Congress didn’t pursue it at the time.
