As we approach the warmer months ahead, heat illness prevention remains a top priority for regulators at both the federal and state levels. Most recently, the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate have introduced companion bills – SB 288 and HB 1092 – directing the Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board to develop and adopt heat illness regulations by no later than May 1, 2027. Virginia would be joining its neighbor, Maryland, as the second state on the East Coast to implement a heat illness standard.
Notably, this is not the first time Virginia has attempted to adopt a heat illness rule, as the legislature attempted to pass a similar bill in 2021. At the tail end of the year, in December 2021, the Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board narrowly voted 6-5 to reject a proposed Virginia Occupational Safety and Health (VOSH) standard aimed at protecting workers from extreme heat. This decision effectively ended the rulemaking process at the state level at that time, despite earlier unanimous support to initiate it.
Fast forward to today, as we have previously reported, both federal and state agencies are collectively taking a more aggressive approach to address the growing threat of heat illness in the workplace. Continue reading








