On Monday, September 30, Maryland will become the first state in the eastern U.S. to require employers to provide water, shade and rest to workers when the heat index exceeds 80° Fahrenheit.

Final regulations to “establish minimum requirements for employers to protect employees from heat stress-related illness” were issued by the Maryland Division of Labor and Industry and published in the Maryland Register.

The standards have been a long time coming.

They were first issued, as proposed standards, last July. They originated from state legislation passed in 2020, but were never implemented during the administration of Governor Larry Hogan.

They will take effect two months after the death of Ron Silver II, a Baltimore sanitation worker who collapsed on a woman’s doorstep, begging for water before he passed out, as the heat index in Baltimore reached 103° Fahrenheit.

Ron Silver was 36 years old and the father of five children. His official cause of death was hyperthermia, or elevated body temperature.

“Had the new heat standard been in effect when Ron Silver went to work on August 2 – and had the Baltimore Department of Public Works been in compliance – he would likely be alive today,” writes Jordan Barab, a former OSHA deputy assistant secretary who authors a newsletter about workplace safety.

“He would have received water and been able to take breaks in a cool area. If he had gotten sick anyway, he and his co-workers would have been trained to recognize the symptoms of heat illness and would have known what to do and how to get him help before it was too late,” Barab asserted.

Rest Breaks and Water

The standard applies to both indoor and outdoor work and kicks in when the “heat index” (a combination of air temperature and humidity) equals or exceeds 80°F.

It requires the following:

• Water: The employer must provide at least 32 ounces of drinking water per hour at no cost to the employee.

• Shade: The employer must provide shaded areas to exposed employees as close to the work area as practicable.

• Rest: The employer must encourage workers to take rest breaks as needed to prevent heat-related illness.

Special procedures will go into effect when the heat index rises above 90°F:

• There must be a minimum rest period of 10 minutes for every 2 hours worked when the heat index is above 90° and below 100° F.

• The minimum rest period jumps to 15 minutes for every hour worked where employees are exposed to a heat index above 100°F.

An employer may be exempted from providing these rest breaks if “alternative cooling and control measures” are implemented.

These measures are defined as “engineering, work practice, administrative or other controls to manage heat, including job rotation, mechanical ventilation systems, misting equipment, cooling vests, air-cooled or water-cooled garments, and access to recreational water.”

Training and Procedures

Employers are further required to set up training programs for employees and supervisors so they can recognize the symptoms of heat stress and know how to communicate and handle medical emergencies.

The training must be conducted in a language and manner that all employees and supervisors can understand and include a written prevention and management plan for heat-related illnesses.

Enforcement of the new regulations will be up to Maryland OSHA, whose prior track record of safety inspections has been sketchy.

Maryland Secretary of Labor Portia Wu and MOSH Director Devki Virk have pledged to enforce the heat standards, with Wu announcing that “employees need protections they can count on, and employers need clear rules that they can follow.”

According to Barab, only five states – California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington – have heat standards.

Ongoing Investigation

A draft national standard for workplace heat has come under attack by industry groups and coalitions led by Eric K. Conn, the founding partner of Conn Maciel Carey LLP.

The D.C. law firm was hired by the Scott administration in the wake of Silver’s death to develop safety recommendations for the Department of Public Works.

Those recommendations were due to be released at the end of September. The city has refused to release the terms of its contract with the law firm, saying it comes under attorney-client privilege.

Meanwhile, Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming is continuing her investigation of working conditions at DPW and other city agencies.

Her reports on DPW, published in July, found that the sanitation yard where Silver was based lacked air conditioning and did not regularly supply bottled water to crews going out on assignments on Code Red Extreme Heat days.

At another facility, Cumming discovered a supervisor who hid the toilet paper, requiring male employees to ask permission to take the paper into the stalls.