Indoor Heat Regulations Approved

The Cal/OSHA Standards Board yesterday unanimously approved indoor heat regulations intended to protect workers by setting temperature requirements for warehouses, factories, schools, shipping centers, restaurant kitchens, and other work sites around the state. 

Under the regulations, which will take effect after review by the Office of Administrative Law (OAL), most employers must cool their buildings with air conditioning, fans, misters, or other methods to below 87 degrees when workers are present, and to below 82 degrees where workers wear protective clothes or are exposed to radiant heat such as furnaces.  Companies unable to lower the temperature of an indoor worksite that hits 82 degrees will need to provide workers with water, breaks, cool down areas, cooling vests, or employ shift changes or other means of keeping employees from overheating.  Employers will also need to track and record temperatures and monitor employees on hot days. 

Employers may incorporate the provisions of their Heat Illness Prevention Plan into their written Injury and Illness Prevention Plan document or maintain it as a stand-alone document.  At a minimum, it must contain:

• Procedures for the provision of water.

• Procedures for access to cool-down areas.

• Procedures to measure the temperature and heat index, and record whichever is greater; identify and evaluate all other environmental risk factors for heat illness; and implement control measures.

• Emergency response procedures and procedures for acclimatization.

The regulations, which took years to develop, were mandated by a 2016 bill (SB 1167, Mendoza) signed by Governor Brown.  Their approval was delayed in March of this year after the Department of Finance objected to the cost – estimated at billions of dollars for state agencies – hours before the Cal/OSHA board met to approve the regulations.  Following that meeting, the regulations were revised to exempt state correctional facilities and local detention and juvenile facilities from the requirements, as implementation in those facilities would have imposed a major cost on the state and local governments.  Employees who telework from a location of their choice and emergency workers directly involved in the protection of life and property will also not be covered by the new rules. 

The OAL has 30 working days from yesterday’s approval by the Standards Board to review the indoor heat regulations.  If OAL approves, the final regulations will be filed with the Secretary of State and posted here.  According to Cal/OSHA, the rules could take effect as early as August.