High temperatures contributed to the deaths of at least three workers last week as a heat dome smothered much of the U.S., illustrating the high stakes of a public hearing that was unfolding at the same time to help determine the fate of the nation’s first proposed worker heat protections.
The weekslong hearing hosted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is part of the federal agency’s process for deciding whether it should finalize, kill or edit the regulation drafted by the Biden administration to make companies offer rest and water breaks to their workers when temperatures hit dangerous levels. Over the course of the hearing, which began on June 16 and ended Wednesday, OSHA officials have faced industry pressure to weaken the rule.
Many industry groups complained that the rule would require employers to give workers 15 minutes of rest for every two hours of work when heat rises above 90 degrees. They argued that although 90 degrees may seem hot in New England or the Pacific Northwest, workers in the South are accustomed to much higher temperatures and don’t need protections.
The late-June heat dome that hovered over the South and Midwest was responsible for the death of a Georgia construction worker, medical officials told CBS News, with one doctor calculating that his hospital in Cumming, Georgia, had seen a 20 percent increase in heat-related visits, most of which were due to working outside in high temperatures.
A heat index in the upper 90s was also responsible for the death of a baseball umpire in Sumter County, South Carolina, who died of heat stroke on June 21. Witnesses told local news reporters that Mitchell Huggins, 61, passed out while officiating a youth softball tournament and later died at the hospital.
On the same day, U.S. Postal Service employee Jacob Taylor collapsed while delivering the mail in Dallas, Texas, when temperatures reached 94 degrees. Officials are investigating the role of heat in his death.
OSHA did not respond to a request for comment.
