BY DENNIS MARTINEZ

COURTESY AMERICAN HORSE COUNCIL

The Biden Administration is moving toward establishing national standards for workers to prevent heat injuries and illnesses. This standard would likely address agriculture and small business sectors for both indoor and outdoor work situations. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, exposure to excessive environmental heat stress has killed 907 U.S. workers from 1992 to 2019, with an average of 32 fatalities per year.

An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard specific to heat-related injury and illness prevention would set forth employer obligations and the measures necessary to more effectively protect employees from hazardous heat. These may include mandatory rest periods, health surveillance and monitoring, cessation of work, reporting, and record-keeping.

AHC will submit comments on this proposal emphasizing the particular circumstances of small equine businesses engaged with agricultural-related work. We ask for your assistance in formulating AHC’s response by completing a short survey which is linked below. We will use the information (without attribution) to evaluate current practices employed to protect employee health and to craft our response to the OSHA regulation.

Survey

The survey is short and provides an opportunity for members to inform on current practices to mitigate the effects of hazardous heat on their employees, explain how, and to what extent, your business would be affected by a potential OSHA standard to protect workers from hazardous heat, highlight any special circumstances that make preventing heat-related injuries and illnesses in outdoor and indoor work settings more difficult or more costly for small entities than for large entities.

Survey responses are due December 1, 2023.

To discuss this proposed regulation or for more information, please contact info@horsecouncil.org

Return to Nov. 19 issue of Wire to Wire