Virginia sets heat‑illness law

Virginia has written workplace heat protection into state law, ordering regulators to create enforceable rules for indoor and outdoor jobs by May 1, 2028. (lis.virginia.gov) Governor Abigail Spanberger signed Senate Bill 288 on Monday, April 13, 2026, according to Business Insurance’s report published April 15. The law directs the Safety and Health Codes Board to adopt standards for heat illness prevention. (businessinsurance.com, lis.virginia.gov) The statute says those rules must require water, shade or climate-controlled space when practicable, rest periods, acclimatization for workers adjusting to heat, training, temperature-triggered procedures, and emergency response plans. It applies to employees and certain contractors whose worksite conditions are controlled by an employer. (lis.virginia.gov, businessinsurance.com) The law also spells out two exemptions: emergency response work, including firefighting, emergency medical services, rescue, emergency highway work, and utility restoration, and heat exposure lasting no more than 15 consecutive minutes. Enforcement will use Virginia’s existing workplace-safety authority. (lis.virginia.gov) Virginia is not starting from zero. The Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Program drafted a heat illness standard in 2021 that would have applied when the heat index reached 80 degrees Fahrenheit and would have exempted incidental exposure of 15 minutes or less. (doli.virginia.gov) That earlier draft matters because the new law tells the board to consider it, along with standards and guidance from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, the American National Standards Institute, Maryland, Oregon, and California. The board also must convene an advisory panel with employee advocates and stakeholders making up at least half the membership. (lis.virginia.gov) The federal backdrop is still unsettled. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration published a proposed national heat rule on August 30, 2024, then held an informal public hearing from June 16 through July 2, 2025, with post-hearing comments later extended. (federalregister.gov, osha.gov, osha.gov) Virginia’s own heat record shows the issue is not limited to farm fields or construction sites. In comments on the 2021 proposal, worker advocates cited seven years of Virginia Occupational Safety and Health complaint data showing 229 heat complaints, with 142 — or 62 percent — involving indoor heat stress and 21 of those indoor cases resulting in hospitalizations. (doli.virginia.gov) The timing is early for this kind of policy to move from paper to practice. The National Weather Service’s April-to-June outlook favors above-normal temperatures across much of the central and eastern United States, and its medium-range heat index outlook this week showed notable warmth building into parts of the East in days 3 through 7. (weather.gov, forecast.weather.gov) What happens next is regulatory, not symbolic. Virginia’s Safety and Health Codes Board now has a statutory deadline, a list of required protections, and a mandate to turn heat planning into a workplace rulebook before the 2028 summer season. (lis.virginia.gov)