OSHA

More than 250 people across the country have died over the last decade when trenches they were working in collapsed. Texas Public Radio joined with NPR and 1A in a worker safety investigation.

A proposed rule from the the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would for the first time set in place regulations to better protect workers from extreme heat.

There is no heat standard at the federal level, with the exception of the military, though advocates have lobbied the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to adopt one for years.

New measures come a month after Columbia Journalism Investigations-NPR revelations on rising worker heat deaths.

Without a legal standard setting out what must be done to prevent heat deaths, workplace regulators have a hard time making violations stick.