California's Promising Steps to Safeguard Indoor Workers from Extreme Heat

The oppressive heat in many warehouses, where workers endure 10-hour shifts, is not limited to just the summer months. In Southern California, the sweltering conditions can be felt year-round.

Workers often find themselves sweating and fatigued, citing inconsistent ventilation. At a public hearing, workers testified to experiencing nosebleeds, nausea, and dizziness. In certain warehouses, the journey to find relief and cool down can be a daunting half-mile trek.

Sara Fee, a previous employee of an Amazon warehouse in San Bernardino, California, testified before a state workplace safety board in May, stating that she would sweat through her shirt three to four times a day and has suffered from nausea and dizziness. With the increasing threat of extreme heat due to climate change, California is preparing to enact protections for employees working in inadequately ventilated warehouses and hot indoor job sites. This will expand on existing heat standards for outdoor workers that have been in place since 2005.

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Minnesota and Oregon are the only two other states that have implemented heat rules for indoor workers, according to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nationally, progress on legislation has stalled in Congress, and even though the Biden administration has begun the lengthy process of establishing national heat standards for outdoor and indoor work, the rules are not expected to be finalized for years.

If California adopts its proposed rules in the spring, businesses would be required to keep indoor worksites below 87 degrees Fahrenheit when employees are present, and below 82 degrees in areas where workers wear protective clothing or are exposed to radiant heat. If businesses are unable to lower the temperatures, they must provide workers with water, breaks, cooling areas, cooling vests, or other means to prevent overheating.

Alice Berliner, the director of the Worker Health & Safety Program at the University of California-Merced, emphasized the increasing heat each year. She highlighted the importance of protections for both indoor and outdoor workers, enabling them to ask for access to drinking water and breaks when feeling overheated.

However, neither workers nor businesses are content with the plan. Some businesses are concerned about meeting the requirements despite the flexibility offered by the regulation. On the other hand, workers argue that buildings should be kept even cooler.

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Heat stress can result in heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion, heatstroke, cardiac arrest, and kidney failure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,600 heat-related deaths in 2021, however, this is believed to be an undercount as healthcare providers are not mandated to report them. It is unclear how many of these deaths are linked to work, whether indoors or outdoors.

According to the Rand Corp.'s analysis of California's proposed indoor heat rules, 20 workers in the state died from heat between 2010 and 2017, with seven of them attributed to indoor heat.

After a historic heat wave in the Pacific Northwest in 2021, Oregon implemented measures to protect indoor workers when temperatures reach 80 degrees. In Minnesota, the threshold temperatures vary from 77 to 86 degrees, depending on the nature of the work. Juanita Constible, a senior climate and health advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, emphasized that the significant size of California's workforce, estimated at around 18 million, could influence nationwide changes. "As California makes changes, the nation often follows suit," she stated.

A RiteAid worker holds a heat and humidity index device that some workers wear when working at the RiteAid warehouse in Lancaster, California, on July 11, 2021.

The California regulators have developed indoor guidelines to align with the state's protections for outdoor workers. When the temperature surpasses 80 degrees, employers are required to offer shade and monitor workers for signs of heat illness. At or above 95 degrees, they must implement measures to prevent heat illness, such as adjusting work hours or offering extra breaks. Colorado, Oregon, and Washington also have regulations in place for outdoor workers.

The California Occupational Safety and Standards Board is considering a new regulation that would mandate employers to use air conditioning, fans, misters, and other cooling methods in their buildings when the temperature or heat index reaches 82 or 87. Some employees, such as remote workers and those involved in emergency operations, would be exempt from this rule.

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Humanity has recently experienced the warmest 12 months in at least 125,000 years. The board is anticipated to vote on the regulations in March, and they are set to be implemented by the following summer, according to Autumn Gonzalez, Chief Counsel of the board.

Workers are advocating for cooler building temperatures, particularly in warehouses, food-processing plants, and other workplaces that require physical movement and heavy lifting.

Robert Moreno, a UPS driver in San Diego, criticized the proposed temperatures as "too high," stating that he has spent most of his life working in warehouses. He emphasized that the suggested temperatures make it unbearable to even eat lunch outside, let alone work inside a building that has been heated by the sun all day.

Spokesperson Steve Kelly stated that the Amazon facility in San Bernardino where Fee worked is equipped with air-conditioning, ceiling fans, and encourages workers to take cooldown breaks as needed.

Kelly, who declined to say whether the company supports the California proposal, emphasized the positive impacts of an effective heat-mitigation program and stated that all employers should be held to the same standard.

A firefighter works to extinguish the Highland Fire, a wind driven wildfire near Aguanga, California, October 31, 2023.

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Scientists have expressed concern that the planet is warming at a faster rate than originally anticipated, with one scientist who has been warning about climate change since the 1980s. Despite this, Kelly reported that the temperature inside the 658,000-square-foot building has not exceeded 78 degrees.

Regulators recognize that certain businesses, such as laundries and restaurant kitchens with commercial boilers, ovens, and fryers, may struggle to adequately cool their workplaces. As a solution, they have proposed offering these businesses the option of providing cooldown areas and other forms of relief for their workers.

However, Katie Davey, former legislative director of the California Restaurant Association, expressed concerns to the board in May about the feasibility of these solutions. She pointed out that small restaurants often lack the space for a cooldown area, and lowering temperatures in a kitchen could lead to violations of food safety laws that require specific heating temperatures for food.

Davey expressed concern that the proposed regulations for indoor-heat illness may clash with existing regulations that impact their ability to properly heat and store food at the required temperatures to safeguard public health from foodborne illness.

Vehicles drive past a heat warning in Los Angeles on September 2, 2022.

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California regulators have spent years working on their proposal, but it seems unlikely that they will lower the threshold temperatures of 82 degrees and 87 degrees. Eric Berg, deputy chief of health and research standards at Californias Division of Occupational Safety and Health, stated that doing so would increase the number of businesses that have to comply and the cost, triggering a new review that would delay the regulations release.

At the May meeting, board member Laura Stock expressed the need for the threshold to be lowered, while also emphasizing the importance of not holding up the process to quickly implement a new standard.

Federal inaction has added to the urgency of the situation. Congress has failed to pass legislation requiring OSHA to establish temporary standards for all workers while pursuing a permanent standard. The Republican-controlled House is unlikely to support such regulations on businesses. Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, highlighted the dire situation in his state. In June, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law that removed existing local ordinances in Austin, Dallas, and other cities which mandated outdoor construction workers be given water breaks by their employers.

With the worsening climate and hotter summers, Casar emphasized the need to prioritize the protection of workers instead of diminishing their rights. He expressed concern that worker protection rules often languish in a lengthy rulemaking process, and emphasized the importance of preventing that from happening in this case.

This article was created by KFF Health News, previously known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), a national newsroom that focuses on producing comprehensive journalism about health issues. KFF Health News is a vital program at KFF - an independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. Additionally, KFF Health News is responsible for publishing California Healthline, which is an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.