MD AG signs on letter calling for worker protections from extreme heat conditions
MARYLAND – Maryland’s Attorney General Office is joining a call for increased protections from OSHA and the federal government, with the coalition of 11 Attorneys General saying farm and construction workers face exposure to dangerous levels of heat in the workplace.
They’re petitioning OSHA to implement a nationwide emergency extreme heat standard, and hoping to see it in effect by this summer.
Despite rising temperatures and intensifying heat waves, and the grave dangers they pose to workers, OSHA currently has no occupational heat standard in place. The coalition also called on Congress to pass pending legislation directing OSHA to put into effect an interim heat standard while it considers a permanent standard, and they urged the White House to support these efforts to protect the nation’s most heat-vulnerable workers.
The AG’s office says multiple farm workers across the US died as a result of working in high-heat conditions last summer and 2024 promises to be even hotter.
“Marginalized communities make up a higher percentage of workers in the agriculture and construction industries and are oftentimes forced to work under extreme conditions to earn a livelihood,” said Attorney General Anthony G. Brown. “These workers deserve standards that protect their health and safety, especially when their lives are on the line supporting the foundation of our economy.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at least 436 workers died from heat exposure from 2011 through 2021. Summer 2023 was the hottest summer ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere, bringing soaring temperatures and unrelenting heat waves to communities across the United States. As a result, vulnerable workers such as farm and construction workers endured unprecedented heat and humidity, resulting in several deaths.
“We are what we’re asking them to do is put an interim emergency standard, such as putting a threshold of the maximum amount of heat that a worker can be subjected to, as well as preventive measures like shade and water,” said Deputy Communications Director for the Attorney General Aleithea Warmack.
