As Arizona swelters, workplace heat protections remain sparse

Temperatures have already surpassed 110 degrees in Arizona this
summer and for yet another season, most workers have few legal
safeguards to protect them from the sweltering heat.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has no
heat-specific regulations. It began crafting such rules under President
Joe Biden. But OSHA is among the agencies under orders from President
Donald Trump to scrap 10 existing regulations for each new one.

That has left labor advocates pessimistic, even as long stretches of extreme heat become more common.

“The U.S. government should be the model employer when it comes to
safety of their employees,” said Eric Gregorovic, president of the
Arizona State Association of Letter Carriers, during his lunch break
Wednesday as he delivered mail in Phoenix.

It was sunny and 106 degrees, with a heat index of 114, and even
worse in his U.S. Postal Service truck – so much worse that he often
prefers to walk, he said, adding that three carriers were hospitalized
this week.

“I’m looking at a thermometer in my truck right now. It’s 140 degrees,” he said. “Some of these vehicles are 30, 40 years old.”

Arizona law has no formal heat standards for the workplace.

A number of proposals have died in the Legislature, including three filed by Democrats in the session that just ended.

More than 1 million Arizonans work in high-risk industries, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Construction, agriculture and landscaping workers are at high risk
due to heat and sun exposure, according to the federal Occupational
Safety and Health Administration. So are delivery and energy sector
workers.

“I’ve got a couple members that have had a heat illness (or) heat
stroke and once you get it, you just can’t go back outside and be normal
again,” said Jason Sangster, the business manager of Ironworkers Local
75, which represents about 1,000 workers and retirees in Arizona.

But people who work outdoors aren’t the only ones who face dangerously high temperatures.

Many cooks and store clerks face hazardous conditions due to lack of
air conditioning or limited air movement, too, as do people who work in
warehouses, manufacturing, bakeries, laundries, electrical utilities and
steel mills.

A report in June by researchers at the Harvard University Kennedy
School of Government found that 40% of people who work indoors – “a
group historically omitted from heat standards and regulations” –
routinely endure 80 degree heat.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been recommending
that OSHA create a heat exposure standard since 1972.

The Trump administration has decimated NIOSH. Roughly two-thirds of
the staff was laid off under the cost-cutting effort led until recently
by Elon Musk, including the entire team of heat experts.

OSHA rules likely stalled

Under Biden, OSHA published a proposed rule on Aug. 30 and officials
said last year that they hoped to finalize it by early 2026.

The proposal would require employers to provide water, break areas
with cooling measures and acclimatization protocols when temperatures
hit 80 degrees. At 90 degrees, workers would be entitled to 15 minute
breaks every two hours.

The public comment period ended Wednesday.

One Scottsdale resident who felt strongly enough to file a comment
was Elizabeth Enright, 81. She retired from the federal Department of
Housing and Urban Development, where she worked as a property manager
supervisor and equal opportunity investigator.

“That doesn’t go far enough, but it’s a start,” she said by phone.

Prospects for that OSHA proposal plunged when Trump took office and
demanded rollbacks of regulations to make room for any new one.

Labor advocates are also concerned because his pick to run OSHA,
David Keeling, was the health and safety executive at UPS and Amazon
when those companies were cited for inadequate heat-related protections.

OSHA does track heat-stress incidents, even without a tailored heat
regulation. And it issues citations, using a General Duty Clause in the
law that created the agency, which requires workplaces to be “free from
recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or
serious physical harm.”

From April 2022 to Dec. 2024, OSHA conducted about 7,000 heat-related
inspections nationwide, issued 60 heat citations and 1,392 Hazard Alert
Letters.

Some of those have involved postal workers.

In Dallas, a 51-year-old letter carrier died on his delivery route on June 25, when the temperature hit 90 degrees.

That was almost exactly two years after another Dallas postal worker
who was 66 died on the job, on a day when the heat index topped 110.

Weeks later, a letter carrier in Mesa collapsed while delivering mail
and was hospitalized. It was 118 degrees that day, in the midst of the
brutal summer of 2023. On Aug. 11, Gov. Katie Hobbs declared a state of
emergency in Maricopa, Coconino and Pinal counties after 30 consecutive
days of excessive heat.

“I’m concerned about construction workers, and people who have to
work outside,” said Patrick Dihel, 78, a Tucson resident who also
submitted a comment supporting OSHA heat standards.

“I see our U.S. Postal Service delivery person drive up – as far as I
can tell with nothing to keep them cooled off, and they’re driving
around for hours under the sun in their little vehicles, roasting,” he
said.

In 2024, the hottest year on record globally, Arizona had 113 straight days with temperatures above 100 degrees.

Nationwide, OSHA has issued 207 citations against USPS since 2015 for
heat-related injuries, according to the agency’s severe injury
database.

Administrative law judges dismissed five such citations in 2020 on
grounds that OSHA couldn’t show that any specific requirement was
violated.

State and local regulations

Colorado has heat safety standards for agricultural workers.
Washington state covers all outdoor workers. Minnesota has standards for
indoor jobs. Four other states cover both indoor and outdoor workers:
California, Nevada, Oregon and Maryland.

Arizona has no heat standard written into state law.

“We’re way behind,” said Sangster, the Ironworkers union official.

State Sen. Catherine Miranda, D-Laveen – a prime sponsor of one of
the bills that died this year – noted the importance of hydration in the
searing Arizona heat.

“I wanted to make sure that the worksites have sufficient water and
protections for the employees,” she said. “I’m just trying to create
legislation that covers everyone during our summers.”

In 2023, Hobbs created a State Emphasis Program aimed at reducing
heat injuries in the workplace. With no direct enforcement authority,
the program aims to raise awareness, collect data and refer dangerous
conditions to OSHA for potential investigation.

In May, Hobbs created a Workplace Heat Safety Task Force and directed it to draft recommended employer guidelines.

The Arizona Department of Occupational Safety and Health, or ADOSH,
part of the Industrial Commission of Arizona, will review the
recommendations. Hobbs wants those implemented before next summer.

“Here in Arizona, it’s a topic that’s near and dear to all of our
hearts, certainly with the heat that we experience every summer,” said
one task force member, Rick Murray, president and CEO of the Arizona
Chapter of the National Safety Council.

The task force has not yet met, but Murray said it plans to set its first meeting soon.

Some Arizona cities have tried to fill the gap.

Phoenix, Tempe and Tucson have workplace heat ordinances that require
employers to have a heat safety plan that includes access to cool
drinking water, regular breaks, access to shade or air conditioning and
giving new hires time to acclimate.

Failure to comply triggers a report to OSHA or to ADOSH. In Phoenix,
violators could also lose the right to do business with the city
government.

Two other SunBelt governors, Republicans Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron
DeSantis of Florida, have signed laws that bar cities from adopting
heat protections for workers.

Sangster, who will also serve on Hobbs’s new task force, said people
who work indoors with air conditioning have no idea how hard it is to
work outdoors all day in Arizona.

“Go put your belt on for eight hours and go outside and put in a good
eight hours of work in the sun,” he said. “You’re going to be drinking
water every 10 minutes.”