Last week, in a little noticed statement in the Maryland Register, the Maryland Division of Labor and Industry announced the issuance of a final workplace heat standard to take effect September 30.
As federal OSHA continues its work on a national standard, Maryland becomes the first state in the eastern United States to issue a workplace heat standard. It’s an important step and shows the value of those OSHA state plans who choose to go above and beyond federal standards.
The new standard, which duplicates the language of the proposed standard issued last July, will take effect almost exactly two months after the tragic and preventable death of Ron Silver II, a Baltimore sanitation worker. Silver died of heat stroke 2hile collecting garbage as the heat index in Baltimore reached 103 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ron Silver was 36 years old, the father of five children.
Had the new heat standard been in effect when Ron Silver went to work on August 2 (and had the Baltimore Department of Public Works been in compliance), he would likely be alive today. He would have received water and been able to take breaks in a cool area. If he had gotten sick anyway, he and his co-workers would have been trained to recognize the symptoms of heat illness and would have known what to do and how to get him help before it was too late.
Maryland OSHA (MOSH) has until the end of January to complete the investigation into Silver’s death. Meanwhile, in a controversial move, the City of Baltimore has hired an employer-oriented law firm that has lobbied against strong OSHA standards to investigate and report on Silver’s death. Their report is due by the end of this month. The Baltimore Department of Public Works has been severely criticized over the past several years for the abysmal working conditions in their facilities.
The new standard came too late for Ron Silver, but thanks to Governor Wes Moore, his Labor Secretary Portia Wu, MOSH director Devki Verk and, most importantly, all of the legislators, unions and advocates who pushed this rule from conception to last week’s successful birth, we will hopefully see no more Maryland heat deaths.
Of course, that depends on employer compliance with the new standard and Maryland OSHA’s ability to enforce the standard. Maryland OSHA has already been conducting inspections under the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and using the language of the proposed standard to guide those investigations.
Maryland Labor Secretary Wu stated that:
A Tragic History of Heat Protections
This victory did not come easy. In fact, it almost didn’t happen at all because Larry Hogan, Maryland’s Republican Governor at the time, showed no sign that he cared about workers’ lives.
Hogan is now running for Senate in Maryland against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks. His poor record on worker protections, however, makes him a much better candidate for retirement.
This victory did not come easy. In fact, it almost didn’t happen at all because Larry Hogan, Maryland’s Republican Governor at the time, didn’t really care about workers’ lives. Hogan is now running for Senate in Maryland against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks. His poor record on worker protections, however, makes him a much better candidate for retirement.
Hogan was Governor when the Maryland legislature passed a bill introduced by Delegate Lorig Charkoudian, on the last day of the 2020 legislation session. That bill required the state to issue a heat standard by October 2022. The bill passed with the support of a broad coalition of labor groups, professional associations, farmworker advocates and immigrant groups. The action came five years after the groups first approached Maryland OSHA and proposed that they issue a standard to protect workers. Maryland OSHA’s response at that time was a simple “no.”
The October 2022 deadline came and went without the legally required final standard. The state did, however, issue a woefully inadequate draft standard that didn’t require employers to do anything until temperature soared to 88oF and even then, the program didn’t have to be written down, making it almost impossible to enforce.
Happily, Marylanders came to their senses in November 2022, electing Democrat Wes Moore as Governor. The Maryland legislature, understanding the inadequacy of Hogan’s draft standard, held up the finalization of the standard until the new Administration could review and improve it.
The Moore Administration, which had appointed veteran Obama administration official (and former Ted Kennedy staffer) Portia Wu as Secretary of Labor, released a new, much stronger draft rule that required workers be protected if temperatures exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit and requiring a written program. Additional protections were required above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
That stronger proposed standard was published in the Maryland Register in July 2024, comments were accepted through the end of August and it was finalized September 10th. It goes into effect September 30th.
What Does the Standard Require?
The standard applies to indoor and outdoor work and is based on the “heat index” which factors in both air temperature and humidity. (Advocates has pushed for the state to use a Wet Bulb Glob Temperature measurements which also includes radiant heat and wind speed.)
The standard kicks in when the heat index equals or exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit. But there are also high heat procedures when the heat index exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Water: The employer must provide at least 32 ounces of drinking water per hour at no cost to the employee
- Shade: The employer must provide shaded areas to exposed employees as close to the work area as practicable. The written program must describe how the employer will consider environmental conditions, workload, required clothing, personal protective equipment, and alternative cooling and control measures when determining rest break schedules;
- Rest: The employer must be encourage workers to take rest breaks as needed to prevent heat-related illness, and the written program must describe how the employer will consider environmental conditions, workload, required clothing, personal protective equipment, and alternative cooling and control measures when determining rest break schedules.
There are also high heat procedures. There must be a minimum rest period of 10 minutes for every 2 hours worked where employees are exposed to a heat index above 90 and below 100 degrees Fahrenheit; and a minimum rest period of 15 minutes for every hour worked where employees are exposed to a heat index above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
An employer may be exempted from providing rest breaks if “Alternative cooling and control measures” are implemented, meaning “engineering, work-practice, administrative, or other controls to manage heat, including job rotation, mechanical ventilation systems, misting equipment, cooling vests, air-cooled or water-cooled garments, and access to recreational water.”
- Acclimatization: The employer must have an acclimatization program when an employee is newly exposed to heat in the workplace and when an employee returns to work after 7 or more consecutive days of absence from the workplace.
- Emergency Response Procedures: There must be some form of communication enabling an employee to contact a supervisor or emergency medical services.
- Training: Initial training for employees and supervisors is required, and retraining annually and when there’s a heat illness incident. The training must be conducted in a language and manner that all employees and supervisors can understand;
- A Written Heat-Related Illness Prevention and Management Plan that requires the employer to monitor the heat, and that describes in detail how the plan will be implemented. The plan must be provided to employees.
Unfortunately, unlike the proposed federal plan, the Maryland standard does not require employers to include employees in development and implementation of the plan.
Several western states: California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado have heat standards, as does Minnesota. States with OSHA state plan states are allowed to issue their own standards if federal OSHA doesn’t have a similar standard. Where federal OSHA has a standard, state plan states must issue the identical standard or a standard that is more effective.
The state of Maryland is showing that preventing heat-related illness and death is not hard: Inexpensive common sense measures like providing water, shade, rest, acclimatization, training and an emergency response plan.
As the nation now approaches election day, it is clear that one party will protect workers from preventable deaths. And the other party will gladly let workers die so as not to risk losing the support of their business community supporters. For those concerned about ensuring that workers come home alive and healthy at the end of each day, the choice this November should not be hard.
Co-authored by Scott Schneider, an industrial hygienist who retired after almost four decades working in the Labor Movement. He is the former Director of Occupational Safety and Health for the Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America.
Note: The quotes by Secretary Wu and Commissioner Verk were added to the current edition.