The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has updated its National Emphasis Program (NEP) that protects workers from outdoor and indoor heat-related illness. Originally issued in April 2022, the revised National Emphasis Program – Outdoor and Indoor Heat-Related Hazards uses OSHA and the Bureau of Labor Statistics data from calendar years 2022-2025 to direct inspection priorities to 55 high-risk industries in indoor and outdoor work settings. 

Through this data, OSHA identified industries with high rates of heat-related illness and industries with employers that have received heat-related citations or hazard alert letters. The revised emphasis program removes outdated background information, updates links, and eliminates the former numerical inspection goal and introduces two reorganized appendices, one for evaluating heat programs and another for citation guidance. The update also includes clearer guidance that OSHA believes will improve tracking and more effectively implement its NEP enforcement and outreach efforts. 

For agricultural operations, the revised NEP also differs from the April 2022 version in several practical ways: 

1. OSHA refreshed its heat-targeted industry list using newer OSHA and Bureau of Labor Statistics data (calendar years 2022–2025). For example, NAICS 1114 Greenhouse, Nursery, and Floriculture Production has been added as an industry “likely to have heat-related hazards.” View the NEP’s updated NAICS codes list here. 
2. The revised directive eliminates OSHA’s former numerical inspection goal, shifting how enforcement activity is planned and tracked across covered industries, including agriculture. This means that OSHA is no longer directing regions/areas to hit a fixed, nationwide (or regionwide) quota of NEP inspections as a performance target. Instead, the directive shifts the program toward condition and targeting-driven activity (i.e., inspections occur based on when heat conditions exist and which establishments fall in the updated high‑risk target list) rather than to satisfy a set number.
3. OSHA added and reorganized NEP appendix guidance on evaluating employer heat programs, giving compliance officers more structured criteria to assess heat-illness prevention efforts commonly used in agricultural workplaces. This means OSHA evaluation guidance will function more like a field evaluation framework/checklist; breaking a ‘heat program’ into components the officer can confirm through interviews, observations and records, as opposed to treating it as a single high-level expectation.  

According to OSHA, its compliance officers will continue to conduct outreach and compliance assistance and expand any inspection where there is evidence of heat-related hazards on heat priority days. Additionally, compliance officers will be conducting random inspections focused on heat hazards in high-risk industries on days when the National Weather Service issues a heat advisory or warning. 

The revised NEP became effective April 10, 2026, and will be in place for five years after the effective date. 

OSHA offers compliance assistance and outreach efforts through its On-Site Consultation Program, which offers free and confidential health and safety consulting for small- and medium-sized businesses to assist employers with developing strategic approaches for addressing heat-related illnesses and injuries in workplaces. 

Learn more about OSHA’s guidance by visiting its preventing heat illness webpage.