U.S. Has No Heat Protections For Workers

State and federal governments have developed procedures for addressing environmental risks exacerbated by climate change such as droughts, floods, and wildfires.

Notably, extreme heat is absent from the list of disasters to which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can respond.

However, protections against extreme heat have lagged behind, according to Ladd Keith, an assistant professor of planning at Arizona State University, speaking to Gabe Stern of the Associated Press (AP).

Notably, extreme heat is absent from the list of disasters to which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can respond.

While regional floodplain managers are common throughout the country, there are only three newly created "chief heat officer" positions to coordinate extreme heat planning, located in Miami-Dade County, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.

Federal experts have recommended protections against extreme heat since 1972, but it wasn't until 1997 and 2006, respectively, that Minnesota and California adopted the first statewide protections.

For a long time, these states were the exception, with only a few others joining them in implementing protections throughout the early 2000s.

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