OSHA Head Tells Employers to Shield Workers From Heat Stress or Face Citations, Fines

As the heat index broke 90 degrees Fahrenheit for much of the nation on June 19, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health David Michaels renewed the agency’s call for employers to protect workers from high-heat hazards by providing them “water, rest, shade.”

“This is a commonsense thing,” Michaels said during a news conference, highlighting the fourth year of OSHA’s campaign to prevent heat-related illnesses among workers who labor outdoors42 OSHR 426, 5/10/12.

Heat stress in 2012 led to the deaths of 31 workers and made another 4,000 ill enough to be recorded in injury and ...