Kathleen Pontone

If you watched the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer, you may have noticed something unusual: mandatory hydration breaks. For the entirety of the tournament, FIFA required cooling and hydration breaks in addition to the standard halftime break. While skeptics argued that these breaks were added for increased ad time, they also allowed players the opportunity to cool off when on-field conditions became dangerously hot, such as during the Fourth of July weekend heat dome. These measures reflect a broader reality:

As record-high temperatures enveloped most of the U.S. earlier this month, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a proposed rule for comprehensive heat injury and illness prevention. The proposed rule, “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings,” was many years in the making and would affect employers throughout the United States. In the interim, OSHA and various state regulators that have not already adopted their own laws are issuing citations under Section 5(a)1

On March 12, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a National Emphasis Program (“NEP”), signaling a renewed focus on COVID-19 under the Biden Administration. A NEP is a temporary program that focuses OSHA's resources on particular hazards and high-hazard industries based on an evaluation of inspection data, injury and illness data, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports, peer-reviewed literature, inspection findings, and other available information sources. The recently issued NEP is viewed as a response to

As businesses continue to wait for curves to begin to flatten, there is little doubt that there will be increased pressure to resume operations as quickly as possible. Businesses should begin to consider now how they will comply with best practices to safeguard employees and avoid situations that put their employees at risk. Jeff Johnson’s March 26 blog post touched on OSHA’s emphasis to that date and is a good starting place for professional managers trying to anticipate problems that good