Workplace heat-illness standards finalized as deadly ‘heat season’ comes to an end

Long-awaited heat protection regulations for workers have been finalized and will go into effect Monday – two days after the official end of a deadly “heat season” that took the lives of dozens of Marylanders this summer. With just days left in the annual Heat-Related Illness Surveillance Report monitoring period – the so-called heat season – the Maryland Health Department had recorded 25 deaths and just under 1,200 emergency room visits due to heat-related illnesses this year.