OSHA Extended the Heat Program Through 2031. Don't Wait Until June to Do Something About It

OSHA announced on April 10 that the National Emphasis Program on heat hazards is extended through 2031. The previous version expired April 8. There was a two-day window where it looked like heat enforcement might pull back. It didn't. It ramped up.

---

Here's the context that matters.

Before the NEP existed, heat-related inspections were about half a percent of all federal OSHA inspections. After the NEP took effect in 2022, that number climbed to six percent. That's a twelvefold increase in how much of the agency's attention heat is getting. And now that attention is locked in for another five years.

If you run outdoor construction work, industrial operations in un-cooled buildings, roofing,

agriculture, warehousing without air conditioning, or any job where the combination of

temperature and exertion puts workers at risk - this is not the year to slow-walk your heat

program. A proper heat illness prevention program has a few non-negotiable pieces. If yours is missing any of them, now is the time to fix it.

Water, shade, rest. Written into your program, not implied. Specific. How much water per worker per hour. Where shade is. How long rest breaks are when temperatures hit thresholds you've defined. "Drink water" is not a plan.

An acclimatization protocol for new and returning workers. This is the one most contractors

skip, and it's the one that kills people. A worker's body needs time to adapt to heat. Day one of a summer job is not a full workload day.

Here's an example of what an acclimatization schedule can look like for a new or

returning worker in a hot environment:

• Day 1: 20 percent of normal workload

• Day 2: 40 percent

• Day 3: 60 percent

• Day 4: 80 percent

• Day 5: full workload, with supervisor check-ins

For workers returning after a week or more off, cut that ramp in half-start at 40 percent and

add 20 percent per day. Somebody who just took a week of vacation in a climate-controlled house loses a meaningful amount of heat tolerance in seven days.

A named person responsible for calling heat. Somebody has to own the thermometer. Somebody has to make the call that today is an adjusted-schedule day or a stop-work day. If that person isn't named, nobody does it, and the decision defaults to "keep working." Training. Heat illness signs, response protocols, buddy system expectations. Documented per worker, refreshed annually.

A written emergency response plan. If someone goes down on your site from heat stroke, every minute matters. The plan should be specific: who calls 911, who meets the ambulance at the gate, who moves the worker to shade and starts cooling, what cooling method is used, who documents what happened.

One thing I want to flag, because it comes up every year with clients who think they're covered. A program on a shelf is not a program. A policy nobody in the crew has read is not a policy. Your heat program is real only to the extent that the foreman on the ground knows it, follows it, and pushes back when something is off.