Pirate's Cove

This would be the same OSHA that overstepped it’s bounds with it’s vaccine mandate (as demanded by Brandon, to be sure), and has now given up on the rule

How Can OSHA Better Protect Workers from Climate Change?

A major culprit is the lack of a federal occupational heat safety standard. Unlike other workplace hazards with their own specific and enforceable rules, such as ladders, noise, and cotton dust, unhealthy levels of heat are loosely regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under a vague part of federal law called the General Duty Clause.

That clause states

The General Duty Clause from the OSHA Act of 1970 requires that, in addition to compliance with hazard-specific standards, all employers provide a work environment “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” Workplace violence is a recognized hazard within the healthcare industry and as such, employers have the responsibility via the Act to abate the hazard. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) relies on the General Duty Clause for enforcement authority.

A slight increase in the global temperature is not a hazard or likely to cause death or serious physical harm

That could soon change. After many years of advocacy by labor, faith, health, environmental, and other leaders, the Biden administration announced last September that OSHA would begin working on a federal heat injury and illness prevention standard. The public comment period for the first stage of rulemaking ends today. A clear, detailed, legally enforceable set of heat-related requirements for employers would help protect workers from restaurants in the Pacific Northwest, to construction sites in Texas, to warehouses in Maine, to farm fields in Florida.

And will increase the cost of doing business, which will increase the cost to the consumers as it’s passed on, all for a scam. But, the real intent is to give the federal government even more control over private businesses.

Here is the TL;DR version of the public comments NRDC submitted to OSHA today about proposed heat standards. ADD LINK TO PDF

• Heat affects the workforce with everything from missed wages, to debilitating injuries, to premature death.
• We don’t have the full picture of how heat harms U.S. workers because of chronic underreporting across federal and state health data systems. OSHA can and should use multiple data sources to better understand the scope and scale of heat-related harms to workers—but still consider those estimates as conservative.
• The current situation will worsen as the United States gets hotter, so heat standards must protect workers from current heat hazards and the future effects of climate change.
• Heat hurts outdoor and indoor workers across every major industry, so OSHA’s heat safety standard needs to protect all workers—not just those at the hottest outdoor worksites.

They forgot to add the link to the PDF, but, regardless, this is all about prognostication of doom for the future, to take control now. Which should receive quite a few lawsuits if passed.

Workers themselves must be involved in developing and finalizing a heat standard. They’re the ones suffering nose bleeds during heat waves, sneaking sips of water lest they be fired, and  collapsing in the heat. They should have a voice in creating the solutions that will work best for them.

Who immediately thought “this is about empowering unions, and creating more unions”?

We recognize that OSHA is chronically underfunded and understaffed, not to mention more than a little busy with COVID-19. That’s part of why NRDC supports the Build Back Better Act, which includes a $700 million investment in OSHA’s ability to uphold its core duty to U.S. workers. But workers simply can’t wait for years for better heat stress protections. We urge OSHA to urgently develop and enforce a strong standard that recognizes occupational heat harms for what they are: preventable.

That whopping 1.5F increase in global temperatures since 1850, which most people won’t notice, is super doomy, right?