Workers Need Protection from Deadly Heat

Ronald Silver II, a Maryland father of five, died in 2024 from a preventable heat-related illness after a full shift of collecting trash during a Code Red Extreme Heat Alert. Silver exhibited classic heat-related symptoms all day, then finally collapsed on a resident’s front step begging for help. He was pronounced dead at the hospital an hour later. 

Two months after Silver died, Maryland became the sixth state in the nation to adopt heat protections for workers. Had the state Department of Labor finalized its workplace heat standard two years earlier, in accordance with a law passed in 2020, Silver might still be playing with his children today. 

This tragedy is exactly the kind of situation on workers’ minds when they demand better heat protections. As members of the Heat Justice Now coalition will make clear during an event in Washington, D.C., on June 17, workers across the country have had enough. They’ve had enough of being denied water breaks. They’ve had enough of broken-down air-conditioning units and unfounded accusations of laziness. And they’ve had enough of fainting, throwing up, and fearing for their lives on the job.

Will federal OSHA finish the job it started?

Last year, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued its first-ever proposal for a heat safety standard that would require employers to provide basic human rights on hot days: water, cool places to rest, and education on how to keep people safe.

Remarkably, the Trump administration—which has taken scores of anti-worker actions and embarked on a so-called deregulation initiative—is still moving the proposal forward. June 16 marks the start of two weeks of public hearings, during which OSHA will accept technical and personal testimony from workers, industry groups, union leaders, medical doctors, and many more. In normal times, there would be a post-hearing public comment period, and then OSHA would develop a final heat rule.

These are not normal times.

OSHA already has more barriers to setting new standards than the average federal agency, due to myriad requirements imposed by past presidents and Congresses. Now, because the administration has axed so much of the federal workforce, including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, OSHA no longer has the critical support it needs from heat-health scientists. Cuts to the National Weather Service could also hamper OSHA’s heat inspections, which feed valuable information back into the standards-setting process. And if the president gets his way with congressional appropriators, the team within OSHA that develops standards and guidance could shrink by about a third.  

It’s hot everywhere. Why do workers need a special heat standard—and why now?

If you’re mowing your own lawn or cleaning out your attic on a hot summer day, no one can keep you from taking a break, getting a glass of water, or even deferring your task to a cooler part of the day. In the current economy, however, too many workers are denied these basic safeguards on the job.  

In a review of more than 200 cases of heat-related workplace deaths, OSHA found that employers frequently failed to provide protections such as water, shade, prompt medical care, and time for new workers to get used to the heat. Some employers actively prevented overheated workers from taking rest breaks. Others left sick workers alone and unsupervised to perish from preventable causes. 

Lots of employers do the right thing, of course. But as OSHA put it last year: “The existence of adequate protections in some workplaces speaks to the feasibility of the standard, not necessarily to the lack of need.”

As to the question of “Why now?” the answer is partly climate change. Heat is an old, old problem for workers, and experts in the Nixon administration recommended federal heat standards more than 50 years ago. Workers have been waiting ever since. In the meantime, every season has gotten warmer and heat waves have gotten longer and more intense. 

Workers aren’t waiting for Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, workers and their allies aren’t waiting for a federal heat standard that may never come. In fact, there are more active campaigns for heat protections at this moment than at any time in at least the last seven years—and lawmakers are taking notice. Here are just a few examples.

• Arizona: A coalition representing indoor and outdoor workers across multiple industries is calling on the state’s brand-new Workplace Heat Safety Task Force to recommend an enforceable standard.
• Florida: Plant nursery workers are negotiating directly with commercial buyers of indoor houseplants to secure heat protections and other basic human rights for themselves and their colleagues.
• New Jersey and New York: Advocates successfully introduced bills to protect workers from heat and are now pushing for those bills to be passed.
• New Mexico: Another coalition is urging the state's environment department to swiftly finalize and implement the heat standard it proposed in March 2025.
• North Carolina: Labor rights and environmental health groups are urging the state’s new labor commissioner to convene a robust group of stakeholders—including workers—to collectively chart a more productive course on heat protections.

Ideally, there would be one strong, enforceable heat standard for the nation instead of a patchwork of protections that create regulatory uncertainty for employers. It’s outrageous to allow workers to die from preventable heat-related causes when plenty of feasible, commonsense protections are right in front of us. State and local decision-makers should heed the call for heat justice by moving without delay to protect the workers that keep this country running. 

This expert blog was originally published July 18, 2024, and has been updated with new information and links.