Call for heat protection for construction and other workers

The attorneys general of New York and Connecticut on Feb. 9 joined with those of Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia in calling for the U.S. Department of Labor to take new steps to protect workers from exposure to excessive heat on the job. New York Attorney General Letitia James and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong are among those asking Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to institute emergency regulations setting new standards regulating on-the-job heat exposure, at least for construction and farm workers. They want the emergency standards in place by May.

The attorneys general take the position that as climate change causes temperatures to continue increasing, workers are facing increased risk of injury, illness or even death from prolonged exposure to extreme heat.

“Before the summer heat once again sets in, we must protect our most vulnerable workers against the dangers of extreme heat by implementing an emergency extreme heat standard and ultimately set a permanent standard for all workers,” James said. “Every American has the right to a safe workplace, and I encourage OSHA, Congress, and the White House to join us in ensuring we protect the health and wellbeing of all workers.”

In their letter fto Su and OSHA, the attorneys general said, “In the summer of 2023, farmworkers and construction workers labored in unprecedented extreme heat, which climate scientists have attributed to the combined effects of escalating climate change and El Niño, a natural phenomenon that spurs higher temperatures across many areas of the United States. Based on these two factors, climate scientists predict that summer 2024 will be even hotter, exposing farmworkers and construction workers to dangerous levels of heat and humidity that can cause a range of heat-related illnesses, and even death. In fact, each year, extreme heat results in approximately 40 workplace deaths, a number that is likely significantly undercounted.”

The attorneys general said that under Section 6(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, OSHA has an affirmative obligation to issue an emergency temporary standard for heat exposure. They called on OSHA to issue a finding of a grave danger and promulgate an emergency temporary standard for extreme heat for summer 2024 to protect the nation’s most heat-vulnerable workers. They said those workers are those at construction sites and those working on farms.

The attorneys general cited new research from Penn State University showing that healthy young men and women have an upper limit  exposure of 88 degrees F., at 100% humidity and 100 degrees F., at 60% humidity.

“These findings indicate that extreme heat and humidity can become life-threatening far more quickly than previously thought,” the attorneys general said. They said OSHA should require employers to provide cool, shaded rest areas large enough to accommodate the number of employees on breaks without the employees having to be in contact with each other.

The attorneys general also said that OSHA should require employers to monitor new employees for up to 14 days to be sure they are becoming properly adjusted to working in the heat.

James office reported that farmworkers are 35 times more likely to die of heat exposure than other members of the general population, and construction workers account for 36% of heat-related workplace deaths each year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from 2011 through 2021 at least 436 workers died from heat exposure in the U.S.