The agency responsible for protecting laborers from workplace hazards has ignored three recommendations from the CDC that it create a much-needed floor, a temperature level above which conditions are deemed inherently unsafe for worker safety
When it gets so hot that the hallucinations start, and her eyes hurt and her spit begins to foam, construction worker Sharon Medina disappears behind a wall of co-workers to sneak a sip of water.
There is no federal standard protecting people like Medina from heat, which killed 815 workers between 1992 and 2017 and seriously injured 70,000 more, according to federal records. More heat deaths are likely in the coming years as climate change turbocharges temperatures to make heat waves even hotter and last longer. The Western U.S. suffered from punishing temperatures this summer, rising higher than they normally would so early in the season.
Even as recently as the Obama administration, policymakers rejected calls that OSHA set an enforceable standard. The Obama White House was concerned that a rule would take too long to write for an understaffed and underfunded OSHA, and would become a target for Republicans eager to paint President Barack Obama as a regulatory zealot, recalls David Michaels, who headed OSHA at the time.Workers install air conditioning and a new furnace at a home in Spokane, Wash. in June.
Those types of variables, combined with global warming, have left a far larger range of workers vulnerable to heat stress as heat waves become hotter, last longer and are more frequent. For example, Amazon workers in the Midwest and South have pushed back against unbearable heat conditions, as part of efforts to unionize. Amazon said in a statement that it has systems in place to monitor heat conditions in its workplaces and offers easy access to water breaks for employees.
“For our communities, this is the number one job, the most accessible kind of job for immigrants in Texas,” Medina said about construction work, speaking through a translator. “But workers are risking everything right now, and it could be preventable. We are talking about 10 to 15 minutes, something even a dog needs, to take a rest, take a breath, and hydrate.”
The Biden administration’s focus on climate change and its disproportionate impacts on the health of communities of color and low-income individuals means a tipping point may be near. Sectors particularly exposed to heat stress — construction, farming, warehouse and factory work — are layered with the social justice, income inequality and workers’ rights issues President Joe Biden has committed to focusing on.
Staffing and workplace inspections have plummeted, raising concerns about whether it could realistically police a new heat regulation. In 1990, there was one OSHA employee per 51,765 workers; in 2019 there was one OSHA employee per 88,977 workers, according to an analysis by the Revolving Door Project, a progressive policy group.
“Just because the heat is rising does not mean that people are able to stop working outdoors,” said Brenda Jacklitsch, a health scientist at NIOSH. “And as temperatures increase, it is expected there will be more heat-related injuries and illnesses and deaths.” But Freedman says he’s concerned that the subjective nature of heat means OSHA regulation could make employers liable for factors beyond their control.
Therein lies one of the main hurdles: pinpointing the role heat stress plays in an injury or a death. While heat can kill on its own, experts say heat triggering underlying health problems is far more common. Doctors may miss warning signs or fail to assign cause to heat. For those reasons, experts say, data on occupational heat-related illnesses and deaths aren’t capturing the scale of the problem.
“We were concerned it would kill them,” Michaels said. But the guidelines worked — no one fell ill — even if it “took a little longer, and they had to use more workers.” Under Michaels, OSHA started a heat awareness campaign, complete with a smartphone app to suggest how many rest and water breaks workers should take based on the temperature at their location.
Air-conditioning access is just one area of focus, she noted. Places where people rarely needed to be cooled off in the summer, now do. But there’s no national inventory of air-conditioning units. McCarthy said the federal government needs to leverage its public housing and grant programs to expand access for low-income individuals, precisely the type of people who get no relief from heat at work.
An overheating world obliterated weather records in 2020 — an extreme year for hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, floods, droughts and ice melt. | NOAA via AP Existing methods of forecasting the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature may not provide a fully accurate picture of heat stress in local environments. NOAA has
Building design is also key and can affect indoor temperature even days after the highest temperatures have abated, said Brian Vant-Hull, a research scientist at City College of New York. What materials buildings are constructed with, how many windows are present and the level of energy machines produce while running influence thermal infrared radiation and heat retention. That means heat stress conditions may be present indoors even days after the most recent advisory.
Regional heat differences matter: People in the Northeast and Midwest will struggle with even modest temperature bumps since they’re less accustomed to extremes than Southern and Western residents who endure hotter weather. Maria Pineda knew the feeling all too well. By all accounts, the 49-year-old said the ornamental fern nursery she worked for in central Florida followed OSHA guidelines, such as offering water and breaks. But she was paid on production, so Pineda didn’t take breaks.
Research supports those findings. One University of California, Davis study monitored the health of 587 agriculture workers at sites that followed state standards for a single shift. Still, nearly 8 percent of laborers in the study recorded body temperatures above 101.3 degrees, putting them at high risk of heat-related illnesses like heat exhaustion or stroke. A further 12 percent were dehydrated by the end of the day, and more than 12 percent suffered reversible acute kidney damage.
“And that number would get worse if you are looking at all farms, not just the ones that are complying with the rules,” she said.
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