Heat waves in Arizona have become increasingly frequent, extreme and lethal in recent years due to the warming influences of human-caused climate change and the urban heat island effect of development.
Yet even as regional research, awareness and mitigation initiatives ramp up, efforts to enact statewide heat protections for workers have repeatedly failed.
This week, there's new hope those safety measures could come from the federal government.
The Biden administration advanced a proposed rule Tuesday to mandate worker heat protections during extreme weather events, including heat waves. The standards outlined by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, have been in the works since 2021, but it was unclear until this week when they might move forward to address what many in Arizona view as an urgent and under-acknowledged extreme heat crisis.
During his announcement Tuesday, President Joe Biden mentioned Phoenix specifically before reminding listeners that "extreme heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States. More people die from extreme heat than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined."
His administration estimates the new OSHA heat guidelines would help create safer conditions for around 36 million indoor and outdoor workers across the nation, reducing heat injuries, illnesses, and deaths on the job. Many Arizona leaders welcomed the news, though White House officials indicated the rule may still face legal challenges, primarily from employers who view the requirements as too burdensome.
At least 645 people died from heat-related causes in Maricopa County last year, an increase of 52% over the previous year. A disproportionate number of these victims are lower-income, unhoused, members of minority communities or otherwise disadvantaged individuals, including many who work grueling outdoor jobs in farm fields or on construction sites, or indoors in overheated warehouses.
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The death toll from last summer's heat extremes prompted Phoenix to pass an ordinance in March that went into effect in May mandating basic heat precautions for an estimated 10,000 workers contracted by the city.
It also inspired Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs to declare a heat emergency last August and allocate $200,000 in funding to address it. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes also responded after 2023 ended as the hottest year on record by calling on Congress and OSHA in February to "move with urgency to implement emergency heat standards and protect Arizona workers.”
The draft rule announced Tuesday is the first significant movement by the federal government on the issue. It now enters a public comment period before undergoing revisions and consideration for approval.
If adopted, the guidelines would require most employers nationwide to:
- Evaluate heat stress hazards in the work environment and communicate information and response guidelines to employees and supervisors through regular briefings and training at no cost to the employee and in a language they understand.
- Develop and implement a worksite heat injury and illness prevention plan with site-specific information and input from non-managerial employees.
- Designate heat safety coordinators to implement and monitor the plan and re-evaluate its effectiveness whenever a significant heat-related illness or injury occurs.
- Provide access to cool, potable, sufficient water, protective cooling equipment and shaded or air-conditioned break areas (with paid rest breaks as needed) when conditions exceed established heat thresholds.
- Determine and follow a process to help returning or new employees gradually acclimate to the heat.
- Continually monitor heat conditions at outdoor and indoor work sites and signs of excessive employee exposure, and take immediate action to reduce the body temperature of any employee exhibiting signs and symptoms of a heat emergency.
- Maintain two-way communication with workers about heat conditions and heat-illness prevention.
The politics and economics of heat
In his 15-minute speech Tuesday about the new rule, the president emphasized the impact of modern heat extremes on the national economy and psyche and how the proposed protections align with his climate initiatives.
"Look, extreme weather events drive home the point that I've been saying for so long: Ignoring climate change is deadly and dangerous and irresponsible," Biden said. "These climate-fueled extreme weather events don't just affect people's lives, they also cost money. They hurt the economy, and they have a significant negative psychological effect on people. Last year, the largest weather-related disasters cost over $90 billion in damage in America."
That $90 billion figure is an estimate by federal scientists of the cost of damage resulting from 28 different climate-worsened, billion-dollar extreme weather disasters, more than occurred in any previous year. Many consider this to be an underestimate when it comes to the cost of heat emergencies, since the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency still does not officially consider heat one of the disasters it is charged with responding to.
A report published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in March calculated the cost of extreme heat to Arizona's economy at $6 million per year, due to related deaths, injury and decreased worker productivity.
"More than half of expected annual human health losses occur in communities with poverty rates above 10%, which points to the role of economic circumstances in determining resilience to extreme heat risks," the report stated, noting also that 20% of Phoenix's workforce is "frontline workers" who labor outside and could lose about $5,000 in earnings per year due to extreme heat by 2065 given climate warming projections.
By enacting protections for these predominantly lower-income and minority workers, the new OSHA rule aligns with Biden's environmental justice goals. In Tuesday's statement, he also announced $1 billion for projects to help communities across the nation prepare for disasters, including extreme heat, storms, and flooding. Several in Arizona are currently being considered for further review.
That FEMA funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and helps advance the president’s Justice40 Initiative to allocate 40 percent of climate investments to disadvantaged communities.
In a briefing with reporters about the announcement on Monday, a senior White House staff official mentioned focusing on updating building codes to improve energy and air conditioning efficiency and slow climate change.
Last year, The Republic published a series on how the housing and climate crises are intersecting in Arizona that included a review of the building code requirements in 40 cities across the state. The results help identify the biggest areas for improvement and where the culture of "green" building is at odds with that practice.
Read our housing + heat investigation:More homes mean more heat. Can new building codes help save metro Phoenix from disaster?
Biden also brought up his Inflation Reduction Act on Tuesday, which is widely considered to be the most significant climate legislation in the nation's history. Many climate activists are concerned his policies and funding programs, including these new heat protections for workers, may not survive a Trump administration takeover given the two parties' differing approaches to mitigating climate concerns.
"Every single congressional Republican voted against the investments in these jobs and to combat climate, and quite frankly, I think it's not only outrageous, it's really stupid," Biden said. "Everyone who denies the impact of climate change is condemning the American people to a dangerous future. When disaster strikes, there are no red states or blue states."
Analyses have shown that incentives from Biden's IRA have primarily benefitted red states by facilitating clean energy jobs and private investments in many regions of the country that did not put him in office. The organization Climate Power calculated the law has brought more than $11 billion in clean energy investments and 15,000 new clean energy jobs to Arizona since its passage in August 2022.
Leaders in America's hottest city react to proposed federal heat rule
In Arizona, leaders who have long been pushing for action on worker heat exposure share fears about the proposed OSHA guidelines being vulnerable to an administration change but celebrated Tuesday's step toward getting those safety measures in place at the federal level since that has not been broadly possible within the state.
State Sen. Anna Hernandez, D-Phoenix, introduced legislation this spring to implement many of the same worker heat protections OSHA just unveiled, a move states like California, Colorado and Nevada have already taken to protect their workers while waiting for federal action. But Senate Bill 1416 was held in committee and did not advance into law, like many similar previous attempts by Arizona Democrats.
Hernandez told The Republic that Tuesday's executive action by the Biden-Harris administration is "a very needed and welcomed step" but echoed concerns it could be overturned.
"We still need to ensure our workers are protected from the effects of extreme heat at the state level, as an (executive order) can be negated whenever there is an administration change," she said. "As lawmakers, we must enact legislation that supports our workers at every level of government."
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Like Biden, Hernandez also alluded to the difference between political parties on track records for dealing with climate-related threats, including the increased likelihood and severity of extreme heat in Arizona. She doesn't expect the OSHA rule to influence local elections, in part because that divide on how to handle climate impacts is already so vast.
"I don’t believe this step by OSHA would have negative consequences on election results," Hernandez said. "Any person that denies that climate change is real won’t be moved by this decision as they are already far gone on their false beliefs."
Environmentalist Sandy Bahr, who directs the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club, expressed relief at the federal action on the toll of extreme heat, which she too feels has been inadequately addressed within the state.
"This announcement is important as it makes it clear to people across the country what we have known in Arizona for some time, (that) extreme heat is a public health emergency," Bahr told The Republic. "The worker safety standards will save lives and that is critical in places such as Maricopa County that continue to break records for heat-related deaths."
Read our climate series:The latest from Joan Meiners at azcentral on climate change
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs supports the Biden administration's action on heat protections for workers, a spokesperson told The Republic. A Democrat, Hobbs has vetoed an array of legislation passed by the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature since taking office in January 2023.
“Gov. Hobbs welcomes the federal government’s efforts to protect workers and families from extreme weather," wrote press secretary Liliana Soto. "As the leader of a state that experiences extreme heat yearly, she understands the critical need to safeguard our communities from the devastating effects of hot weather."
Hobbs' declaration of a heat emergency last August showed a commitment to recognizing the impact of increasing temperatures in the state, even though a recent investigation by The Republic found that only $1,600 of the allocated $200,000 has been reimbursed for local government heat responses.
Her more recent announcement of a state extreme heat preparedness plan in March, which included naming Dr. Eugene Livar as the nation’s first statewide chief heat officer, appeared to signify a more serious shift in Arizona's responses to extreme heat that many find hopeful while they await federal worker protections.
Joan Meiners is the climate news and storytelling reporter at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Before becoming a journalist, she completed a doctorate in ecology. Follow Joan on Twitter at @beecycles or email her at joan.meiners@arizonarepublic.com. Read more of her coverage at environment.azcentral.com.
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