By: Abby Coven

Editorial editor

Rising record-high temperatures have plagued countries around the world. In America alone, approximately ten thousand heat-related work injuries every year affect people working in warehouses, agriculture, and construction. Whether outdoors or in factories, about 35 million American workers experience serious injury or even death per year due to hazardous heat during their workday. Most of this harm is preventable with stricter safety regulations that prioritize the health of workers over cost alone. The Trump administration and congressional Republicans must endorse and implement stricter federal workplace safety standards to protect laborers from extreme heat.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was formed in the early 1970s in response to unchecked conditions for workers exposed to toxic chemicals and heavy machinery as the technology, defense, and manufacturing industries grew. The agency promulgated strong safety standards requiring employers to ensure their workplaces were free from recognized hazards. The resulting safety improvements included limits on deadly industrial toxins like asbestos and lead and mandatory safety features for factories and construction. According to the US Department of Labor, by 2020, annual fatalities were reduced by 60 percent even as the national workforce doubled.

Today, workers in America face a new scourge: extreme heat caused by global climate change. An Environmental Health Journal article found that 28,000 workplace injuries every year are linked to extreme heat exposure, such as heat stroke and other heat injuries. The Biden administration wrote stronger federal protections for workers that required more breaks and regular access to cool drinking water and cool rest areas or shade. However, business groups have urged the current administration to abandon these proposed safety regulations due to the higher costs to employers and the implementation burden on small farmers and companies. Thus, the Trump administration has opted to significantly rewrite and weaken the proposal, which has reduced aggressive enforcement against unsafe conditions. Congressional Republicans have taken a similar position by authoring legislation that would prevent the Department of Labor from finalizing or implementing the Biden administration’s heat safety provisions. 

Without federal regulations, workers across the country are subjected to the whim of state governments and their disparate heat safety rules. The National Institutes of Health found that Texas and Florida have not enacted statewide protocols to mitigate this harm, even though they account for almost half of all severe heat-related injuries in the construction industry. As temperatures rise each year, it is imperative that our leaders meet this moment and strengthen protections for workers exposed to extreme heat.

(Sources: Economic Policy Institute, Environmental Health Journal, NIH, NYT, U.S. Department of Labor)