Metro Detroit hit near-triple-digit temperatures this week, and crews adapted the way they always have: earlier starts, more water, shifted schedules. What hasn’t adapted is the rulebook. OSHA’s federal heat standard remains stalled with no finalization date, leaving enforcement to a patchwork of emphasis programs and the General Duty Clause during the hottest stretch of the year.
Where the OSHA heat rule actually stands
The Heat Injury and Illness Prevention proposal was published in August 2024. Public hearings wrapped in 2025, the post-hearing comment period closed October 30, and then the docket went quiet. The rule isn’t dead, but it isn’t a priority for the current administration, and nobody credible expects a final standard this year.
What OSHA did do: on April 10 it issued a revised National Emphasis Program for heat hazards. The new directive narrows the list of industries flagged as high-risk and drops the old numeric inspection goal, but keeps construction on the target list and keeps compliance officers knocking on hot days.
What a heat inspection looks like without a standard
Enforcement without a specific standard runs through the General Duty Clause, and inspectors have settled into a predictable script. They ask for a written heat illness prevention plan, acclimatization procedures for new and returning workers, documented training for supervisors and crews, records showing the employer actually monitors temperature or heat index, and evidence that water and rest breaks happen in practice rather than on paper.
That last one decides cases. A binder is not a defense if the foreman’s texts show breaks getting skipped to hold schedule.
The stakes show up in the fatality data. New York’s NYCOSH report last week tied a rising share of construction deaths directly to heat, and heat-related deaths are widely undercounted because they present as cardiac events.
States are filling the gap
California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota and Maryland run their own heat standards, several triggering mandatory shade and paid cool-down breaks at 80°F. Contractors working across state lines increasingly adopt the strictest applicable rule as a single national policy, since training crews to two standards costs more than the breaks do.
The practical read for this summer: build the written plan, log the monitoring, and treat 90°F heat index as an action level whether or not Washington ever says so. The rulemaking docket will still be there in the fall. The heat won’t wait.