Denver — A bill aimed at protecting workers from extreme heat and cold was approved March 18 by the Colorado House’s Health and Human Services Committee.
H.B. 26-1272 would direct the state’s Department of Labor and Employment to collect data on work-related injuries, illnesses or emergencies caused by heat or cold stress beginning no later than Jan. 1, 2027.
It also would require the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to develop, by Jan. 1, 2028, a model temperature-related injury and illness prevention plan, or TRIPP, and make it available on the department’s website.
This is the second attempt by state legislators to pass the bill. H.B. 25-1286 was tabled in March 2025 by the Colorado House Business Affairs and Labor Committee.
“We heard that last year’s bill was too prescriptive, and we adjusted accordingly. We heard that (extreme temperatures) really (aren’t) a problem, so we’re suggesting that we collect data,” Rep. Meg Froelich (D-Greenwood Village), one of the bill’s sponsors, said during the March 18 hearing. “We ask you to let us begin this journey, to listen to workers, to consider workers when we think about our increasingly hot summers, our crazy cold days that seem to come from nowhere.
“Prevention is one of the P’s in the TRIPP. If we can plan ahead, we can keep workers healthy, we keep Colorado going.”
The bill is now with the state’s House Appropriations Committee.
Colorado currently has heat illness and injury prevention requirements for agricultural workers and is one of seven states with some form of heat regulation. The others are California, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
