In what workplace safety advocates are calling the most meaningful federal action on worker heat protection in American history, OSHA launched a revised and dramatically expanded National Emphasis Program (NEP) on Heat Injury and Illness Prevention on April 10, 2026 — replacing the previous NEP that had been in operation since 2022 and extending through April 2031.
The new NEP uses Bureau of Labor Statistics injury data from 2022–2025 to target 55 high-risk industries for proactive heat-hazard inspections, expanding the program from approximately 200 heat inspections per year under its original form to approximately 2,400 per year — representing 6% of all OSHA inspections nationwide. Heat inspections have now increased twelve-fold since the program began.
