Though the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has launched a heat danger educational and outreach program, and has even issued a smartphone app to calculate an affected worker's heat index and provide safety tips, the agency has no heat standard in the works, though one was recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 1972.

When pressed by the Public Citizen watchdog organization and its Heath Research Group to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), OSHA chief David Michaels replied that the mortality rate for heat exposure "does not exceed those of other hazards OSHA has deemed to be 'significant' (e.g., Benzene) and therefore would not likely meet the legal requirement of 'grave'" to justify issuing an ETS.

According to Public Citizen, 563 workers have died from heat-related injuries and 46,000 have suffered serious injuries in the past 20 years.