John Ho was quoted in Business Insurance discussing heat-related workplace inspections to protect workers from injuries or fatalities. OSHA “has traditionally been short staffed given the jurisdiction it oversees,” said John. “Although Congress gave OSHA a $20 million increase in its 2022 fiscal-year budget, it was still much smaller than Biden’s original request. So there will continue to be issues with how much ground OSHA can actually cover given the number of compliance officers, although a sizable amount of the $20 million, nearly $7.3 million, is slated for enforcement, which should help.” “OSHA has been enforcing heat illness through the general duty clause for a long time. This is not a new enforcement priority for OSHA so the past experience helps identify industries and businesses where this is more prevalent.” In 2011, OSHA launched a heat illness prevention campaign to educate, “so they are hitting the ground running, so to speak, with the heat illness (national emphasis program),” he said.

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