Governor Signs Indoor Heat Stress Legislation

The Governor has now signed into law a bill to address “indoor heat stress”.  SB 1167, by Senator Ton Mendoza representing East Los Angeles, would require the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), by January 1, 2019, to propose to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board for the board’s review and adoption, a heat illness and injury prevention standard applicable to workers working in indoor places of employment.  The standard shall minimize heat-related illness and injury among workers working in indoor places of employment.  The standard shall be based on environmental temperatures, work activity levels, and other factors.  In developing the standard, the division shall take into consideration heat stress and heat strain guidelines in the 2016 Threshold Limit Values and Biological Exposure Indices developed by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH).  The bill also contains specific wording that allows the division to propose, and the standards board to adopt, a standard that limits the application of high heat provisions to certain industry sectors.  The Association will be closely monitoring the development of this regulation and how it may apply to agricultural processing facilities that operate during any of the warmer months of the year.