Laboring in 90 Degrees, Indoors: Workers Push for Action on Heat-Related Illness

As the nation continues to fry in this summer’s sky-high temperatures, worker organizations and others are asking the federal government to take actions to prevent injury to workers exposed to extreme heat, whether indoors or outdoors.

Cullen Page, who works in the kitchen of a pizzeria in Austin, Texas, knows the issue firsthand. “Every day of this exceptionally hot summer, myself and the other kitchen workers have had to endure consistent temperatures between 90 and 110 degrees throughout our workday,” he said Wednesday at a press conference sponsored by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United, an advocacy group for restaurant employees. “Our air conditioner barely functions and has broken down completely in the past; the airflow and ventilation in the kitchen is also nearly non-existent.”

“We have three large ovens and none of them are insulated,” Page continued. “When they run at the same time the heat inside is unbearable … One of my co-workers had a seizure due to a heat-sensitive medical condition and had to take several days off of work to recover. When they returned to work, they felt sick and had to leave early. This led to a conflict between them and management and they had to resign. Any complaints about the heat to management are deflected and the issue is minimized, as if it’s a fixture in the restaurant industry and we just have to deal with it.”

Stories like that one “are why OSHA [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] needs to enact a heat stress standard in the restaurant industry, which is directly in line with … the right of every worker to a safe and healthy work environment,” said ROC United president Sekou Siby, DBA, at the press conference.

OSHA has been working on the issue. In October 2021, the agency posted a notice that it was developing a rule on “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings.”

“Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, as well as increasing daily average daytime and nighttime temperatures,” the agency noted in its introduction. “OSHA is initiating a rulemaking to protect both indoor and outdoor workers from hazardous heat, and as a first step is seeking additional information about the extent and nature of hazardous heat in the workplace and the nature and effectiveness of interventions and controls used to prevent heat-related illness … This [notice] also seeks information on issues that may be considered in developing a standard, including the scope of the standard and the types of controls that might be required.”

OSHA received more than 1,000 comments on its notice before the comment period closed a few months later. In February 2022, the agency convened the first meeting of its Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Work Group, organized to provide recommendations to OSHA on the rule. Meetings of the group are held quarterly.

But OSHA really isn’t working fast enough, said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, at the press conference. “The OSHA normal standard-making process is extremely lengthy,” she said. “These rules can take 7 years, and that’s too long, because how many workers will die in the meantime?”

“Heat illness prevention is one of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s top priorities and we’re working diligently towards developing a proposed rule to protect workers from heat illness,” OSHA Assistant Secretary Doug Parker said in an emailed statement to MedPage Today in response to an inquiry about the timeline for developing a rule.

“In the meantime, we are taking several measures to protect workers better in hot environments and reduce the dangers of exposure to ambient heat,” he continued. “As we work towards proposing a rule on heat illness prevention, we’re also enhancing our enforcement compliance efforts to make sure employers and workers understand the dangers of heat illness and how to prevent it. OSHA strongly encourages employers to reach out to our compliance assistance specialists around the country for information on how best to address heat-related hazards at their workplaces.”

In April 2022, OSHA initiated a “national emphasis program” on heat-related hazards that targeted 70 types of businesses deemed to be at high risk for having workers exposed to extreme heat, an agency spokesperson said in an email; OSHA noted that U.S. workers suffer more than 3,500 heat-related injuries and illnesses each year, with low-wage workers and workers of color being disproportionately affected. OSHA has conducted more than 1,700 heat-related inspections since the program began, the spokesperson said.

Instead of a final rule, Goldstein-Gelb’s group and others are pushing for Congress to require OSHA to enact an “interim standard” for extreme heat — something that can be accomplished much more quickly. A bill known as the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act — first introduced in the House in 2019 by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) — would require OSHA to issue a federal extreme heat standard, with specifics for implementing it to be developed by individual employers with input from their workers. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). The bill was named for a worker who died from heat stroke after working for 10 hours straight in 105-degree temperatures.

The standard would require that workers who are exposed to high heat have paid breaks in cool or shaded environments and access to water for hydration. Employers also would have to create emergency response procedures for employees suffering from heat illness, provide training on heat stress in a language that workers can understand, and enact acclimatization plans to ensure workers can adjust to their working conditions. The bill also requires training for employers and workers on heat stress illness and prevention, and use of ventilation and protective clothing to limit heat exposure. And it would ban retaliation or discrimination against employees who report violations of the law.

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