A historic heat wave that began blasting the Southwest is shining a spotlight on one of the least-addressed effects of US climate change: the rising deaths and injuries of people who work in extreme heat.
Many states are adopting their own versions of a federal “emphasis” program increasing inspections to ensure employers offer water, shade and breaks, [Photo: Reuters]
“Sometimes as a worker you ask your employer for protection or for health and safety related needs, and they don’t listen or follow,” he said in Spanish through an interpreter. There is no federal heat standard in the US despite an ongoing push from President Joe Biden's administration to establish one. Most of the hottest US states currently have no heat-specific standards either.Extreme heat is notably absent from the list of disasters to which the Federal Emergency Management Agency can respond
“Without a specific heat standard, it makes it more challenging for regulators to decide, ‘OK, this employer’s breaking the law or not.’” Federal experts have recommended extreme heat protections since 1972, but it wasn’t until 1997 and 2006, respectively, that Minnesota and California adopted the first statewide protections.
The measure faltered even after the temperature threshold for those protections was increased from 95 degrees Fahrenheit to 105 . Democratic lawmakers in Nevada are now trying to pass those protections through a regulatory process before next summer.
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