Virginia enacts new heat illness-prevention law

Virginia employers will need to implement heat illness-prevention plans starting in 2028.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has signed into law legislation (HB 1092 in the House of Delegates and SB 288 in the Senate) that tasks the Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board with adopting regulations by May 1, 2028, that will require employers to:

• Provide employees who are working in heat with:
  • Water,
  • Access to shade or climate-controlled environments when practicable,
  • Rest periods, and
  • Acclimatization to working in heat, 
• Provide effective training regarding heat-illness prevention;
• Implement heat and high-heat procedures when the temperature exceeds certain thresholds; and
• Establish effective emergency-response procedures.

These regulations will include exemptions for certain emergency services and for short periods of heat exposure lasting no more than 15 consecutive minutes.

In developing the regulations, the Board is required to consider its draft heat-illness prevention standard from 2021. Among other things, that draft standard proposed setting the threshold for heat at 80 degrees Fahrenheit and for high heat at 90 degrees Fahrenheit, which would trigger additional requirements such as 10-minute cooldown rest periods every two hours.

Virginia follows in the footsteps of several other states that have enacted heat-illness prevention requirements in recent years, including California, Colorado (for agricultural employees), Minnesota, Oregon and Washington. Legislation is under consideration in several other states as well.