Bloomberg Law Story About OSHA’s Proposed Heat Rule Includes Comment from Chris Nickels

Chris Nickels, a Milwaukee-based partner in the Quarles & Brady Labor & Employment Practice Group, was quoted in a Bloomberg Law story about the proposed new rule from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) governing heat safety standards for employees.

OSHA recently invited public comment on its first nationwide heat stress rule, which would be designed to reduce work-related heat injuries and illnesses. Nickels noted that with any such rule, it will be important to help employers understand the variables that influence heat illness prevention.

An excerpt:

Christopher Nickels, a partner at Quarles & Brady, said the biggest challenge for a nationwide rule isn’t necessarily setting a heat trigger point, but making sure employers understand the complexities of heat illness prevention measures like acclimatization—which focuses on limiting heat exposure for workers as their bodies adjust to the environmental change.

“Employer aren’t going to become meteorologists on some of this stuff,” Nickels said. Employers will need a more practically structured approach to address heat illness if they’re going to successfully implement a plan, he added.

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