# General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 — State Heat Illness Prevention Standards — Temperature Triggers and Required Employer Actions

For General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, jurisdiction is Federal OSHA; effective date is 1970; initial trigger temperature f is None specified; initial trigger actions is Employers are required to provide their employees with a place of employment that is free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious harm to employees, including heat-related hazards; high heat trigger temperature f is None specified, recorded from its source on 2026-08-17.

- **jurisdiction:** Federal OSHA _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **regulation citation:** General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970
- **effective date:** 1970 _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **initial trigger temperature f:** None specified
- **initial trigger actions:** Employers are required to provide their employees with a place of employment that is free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious harm to employees, including heat-related hazards _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **high heat trigger temperature f:** None specified
- **high heat actions:** No specific high-heat procedures mandated at federal level; enforcement relies on the General Duty Clause _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **coverage scope:** All workplaces covered by OSHA; no heat-specific standard finalized _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **acclimatization period days:** None specified
- **written plan required:** No heat-specific plan required _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_

## What the source says

> This includes heat-related hazards that are likely to cause death or serious bodily harm.

## Source

- https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure/standards

Last verified: 2026-08-17. Review by: 2027-08-17.
Part of [State Heat Illness Prevention Standards — Temperature Triggers and Required Employer Actions](https://referencesource.org/state-heat-illness-prevention-standards/).