Recent weeks have seen Earth’s highest average temperatures on record, according to recent climate studies, yet most U.S. workers have few legal protections related to extreme heat conditions.
Between 2017 and 2022, the deaths of 124 workers who died on the job were officially attributed directly to heat, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which says that number is almost surely an undercount because heat-related deaths are often blamed on other workplace accidents or underlying health conditions.
“What was happening was we had some rogue cities that maybe stepped too far over their skis and ventured into some areas that they shouldn’t have ventured into,” said Geoffrey Tahuahua, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Texas.The water break ordinances “were not a direct target of this bill,” he said, though other construction industry officials found them superfluous. Industry standards, Tahuahua said, provide more heat safety breaks than Dallas and Austin required.
That makes it difficult for regulators to hold employers accountable for heat injuries, said Jordan Barab, who served as OSHA’s deputy assistant secretary from 2009 to 2017. Regulators must meet a higher burden of proof to establish heat as the cause of an injury or death.
Legislators in Florida, where 11 workers died of heat-induced causes since 2017, according to OSHA data, rejected legislation that required employers to implement outdoor heat exposure safety training programs, provide cool drinking water, shade and 10-minute rest breaks for every two hours of work in 80-degree weather.
On Jan. 1, a farmworker died of heat stroke in Parkland, Fla., on his first day on the job harvesting vegetables, according to an OSHA investigation. But outside of Washington, Oregon and California, employers are not required to implement such programs, said Sean Goldhammer, legal services director for Workers Defense, a coalition that advocates for low-wage workers.Working in hot conditions can have adverse health effects aside from death. Hot weather and extreme heat are contributors to myriad health risks such as kidney problems: A 2017found a single day of field work in extreme heat caused acute kidney injuries.
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