California indoor heat rule moves closer to implementation

Published: June 27, 2024 | by Emily Scace, Senior Legal Editor at Brightmine

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) has voted unanimously to adopt the latest version of its proposed rule regulating indoor heat exposure.

The proposal is the latest step in implementing a 2016 law (S.B. 1167) directing the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, commonly known as Cal/OSHA, to develop a standard to address the risks of heat exposure in indoor workplaces. California has had a rule regulating heat exposure in outdoor workplaces since 2006.

The rule now moves to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) for approval. In May, the OAL rejected the OSHSB’s previous draft, citing clarity concerns.

If approved in its current form, the rule would require employers to take certain steps to protect workers in indoor workplaces from heat stress when the temperature equals or exceeds 82 degrees Fahrenheit when employees are present. Exceptions would apply to:

• Employees teleworking from a location of their own choice that is not under the employer’s control.
• Incidental heat exposures between 82 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit for less than 15 minutes in any 60-minute period (other than vehicles without effective air conditioning and certain work loading and unloading shipping containers).
• Emergency operations directly involved in protection of life or property.
• Prisons, local detention facilities and juvenile facilities.

Required measures would include:

• Provision of sufficient quantities of fresh, cool drinking water that is provided to employees free of charge as close as possible to working areas and in indoor cool-down areas.
• Cool-down areas located near employee work areas that employees can access as needed and during recovery and rest periods.
• Emergency response procedures.
• Acclimatization procedures.
• Employee and supervisor training on the risks of heat illness, the employer’s procedures for mitigating the risks, and employee rights under the indoor heat rule.
• A written Heat Illness Prevention Plan.

Additional assessment and control measures would be required when:

• The temperature or heat index in an indoor work area equals or exceeds 87 degrees Fahrenheit when employees are present;
• Employees wear clothing that restricts heat removal and the temperature equals or exceeds 82 degrees Fahrenheit; or
• Employees work in a high radiant heat area and the temperature equals or exceeds 82 degrees Fahrenheit.

Indoor workplaces with a high risk of heat exposure include certain factories, kitchens, warehouses and foundries.