While the Trump administration has halted or reversed most progressive regulatory efforts the Biden administration launched, one has continued to inch through the bureaucracy: a proposed Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule that would protect American workers from heat stress on the job.
The rule, which would require employers to provide additional supports and protections when temperatures climb above 80 degrees, certainly seems like it would save lives — lives that, in so many cases, are those of Black and brown workers.
RELATED: Working While Black — and in the Heat
Research on heat standards, which states have been adopting on their own over the last 20 years, certainly bears that out, including a new study recently published in the journal Health Affairs.
California Became the First Test Case
The first state-level heat standard was adopted by California in 2005, for outdoor workers only, and for many years, it was the only western state with such a law on the books. This created a natural control group for the study: researchers looked at heat-related deaths in California and neighboring states with similar climates to gauge the regulation’s effectiveness.
The study period was long — from 1999 to 2020 — and included not only a period of California having no standard, but also periods of both increased enforcement and revisions to the standards that kicked in after 2010 and 2015, respectively.
Stronger Enforcement, Fewer Deaths
The study shows that simply having a heat standard in place is not enough: there was no decrease in deaths in California relative to other states when the protections were first put in place. It was only after enforcement was increased, starting in 2010, that California saw heat-related deaths drop by a third relative to neighboring states.
After the standards were revised to be stricter in 2015, the decline increased to 5%. According to the authors, “These findings suggest that when properly designed and enforced, comprehensive heat standards can protect vulnerable workers as temperatures rise.”
RELATED: Extreme Heat Is Not an Equal-Opportunity Killer
And yet, having a heat standard in place doesn’t mean no one dies from heat-related illness, but it does mean that far fewer people do. California saw more deaths, even, between 2010 and 2020, about 100 a year — but the increase was smaller than the spike in heat-related deaths experienced in neighboring states that had no protections for workers. In 2020, for example, Arizona’s Maricopa County alone had 233 heat-related deaths.
So Goes California, So Goes the Nation?
As record highs keep getting hotter, and more and more attention is put on the dangers of extreme heat, other states are following in California’s footsteps: Since 2022, Colorado, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington have all adopted their own heat standards. And while the federal standard is not yet a sure thing, the fact that it’s continuing to inch along under the Trump Administration bodes well. While it could still be a matter of years before it goes into effect, it can help save workers’ lives across the country.