Working as a painter in Texas’s extreme heat, Maynor Alvarez can feel the toll the weather takes on him. He and his colleagues have suffered symptoms from cramps to headaches and feeling like they’re going to vomit.
“All of us who have worked outside have experienced this heat exhaustion,” he told The Hill in an interview conducted in Spanish.
The Biden administration has said it is working to develop a rule aimed at preventing heat-related illnesses in the workplace — saying nearly two years ago that it planned to do so.
Juley Fulcher, a worker health and safety advocate at Public Citizen, which has pushed for national standards, said her organization had hoped that a rule could be finalized before the end of Biden’s first term. Now she said she doesn’t think there is enough time, and if Biden’s not reelected, the next administration may not continue the process
A spokesperson for the Department of Labor, which oversees the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), did not respond to questions from The Hill about the timeline for the rule, but said in a written statement that the agency recognizes the urgency of the issue.
The statement, provided by spokesperson Victoria Godinez, notes that OSHA is continuing to work toward a potential heat illness standard and plans to hold Small Business Advocacy Review Panel meetings this summer, the next step in the standard development process.
Meanwhile, Texas, which has faced the brunt of the latest heat wave, recently passed a bill that could strip any local protections that exist in cities within its borders.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
