Maryland is set to finalize its heat standard for workers later this summer (2024)

Maryland is poised to become the first state on the East Coast to enact safety protections for people working in the heat. It could be a model for a federal standard.

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There are no federal standards for workers who labor in extreme heat. President Biden proposed new regulations earlier this month, but they do not take effect for at least a year and could stall entirely depending on the election results. Only five states have some worker protections for the heat, and none of them are on the East Coast, although now Maryland is finalizing a new heat standard. WYPR's Emily Hofstaedter has more.

EMILY HOFSTAEDTER, BYLINE: Admire Stewart takes a deep breath and sits still while a breeze hits her face. Her gallon-sized water bottle is by her side.

ADMIRE STEWART: Like, right now, I have a migraine because of the heat yesterday, and I have heat hives.

HOFSTAEDTER: She points to the bumps on her arms. Stewart works inside Ellicott Hall, one of the unairconditioned dormitories on University of Maryland's College Park campus. When students are gone for the summer, Stewart is one of dozens of housekeepers who clean every inch of the building, doing laundry, waxing floors and pushing a vacuum through student bedrooms. She says temperatures in the building have swelled close to 90 degrees.

STEWART: I really didn't finish my assignment yet because I've been really slowing myself down a little bit than usual.

HOFSTAEDTER: Stewart feels generally supported by her employer to take the measures she needs to keep herself from getting too sick, like slowing down, stopping for water or just leaving work undone until the worst part of the heat passes. But many are not so lucky. Thirty-six U.S. workers died from heat sickness in 2021, the last complete year in which the Bureau of Labor Statistics gave data. That number has been growing throughout the last decade, and according to independent investigations, those are likely vast undercounts. That's one of the reasons Democratic Maryland state delegate Lorig Charkoudian passed legislation to create a heat standard all the way back in 2020.

LORIG CHARKOUDIAN: We are facing serious impacts from climate change, and it plays out in many ways, harming usually the most vulnerable communities first.

HOFSTAEDTER: Occupational safety experts agree that Maryland is poised to enact one of the most comprehensive standards. They have to be written in a worker's native language, and they also include a climatization period so that workers can get adjusted to the heat. Mandatory cooled, shaded breaks kick in when the heat index reaches 80 degrees, and additional breaks are required when it hits 90 degrees. The incoming standards have received pushback, particularly from the construction and transportation industries. Steve Sohasky is with Creative Risk Management Solutions, which advises construction companies. He says the standard is too extreme and that workers and companies can regulate themselves.

STEVE SOHASKY: If people need breaks, they take breaks. You know, we have that flexibility in the job.

HOFSTAEDTER: Construction workers generally account for over one-third of yearly heat deaths. Workers of color and immigrants also tend to work jobs with the most risk of heat sickness. The Biden administration proposed a federal heat standard earlier this month after years of delay, but it could still be months before they're passed and years before they go into effect. Anastasia Christman from the National Employment Law Project says Congress is notoriously slow in updating laws for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.

ANASTASIA CHRISTMAN: The public comment period can be made very long. The cost-benefit analysis is very difficult in the case of OSHA because how do you count the value of injuries that won't happen? You know, you're having to sort of count something negative.

HOFSTAEDTER: Just a handful of states have standards. Meanwhile, states like Texas and Florida have made it illegal for municipalities to pass their own heat ordinances. Christman points out that heat, which can cause tiredness or confusion, can be the underlying cause of other incidents, like a forklift collision or a car accident on the commute home.

CHRISTMAN: I think it will be very interesting to see whether or not we see not only a decrease in straight-up heat illness but also a decrease in all these other kinds of injuries and if, in fact, the workplace just starts to become exponentially safer.

HOFSTAEDTER: Once the standards pass, experts say the next challenge is enforcement. OSHA has fewer than 2,000 inspectors responsible for nearly 8 million worksites.

For NPR News, I'm Emily Hofstaedter in Baltimore.

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