Biden Unveils New Extreme Heat Rules for Workers As EPA Report Warns Heatwaves, No 1 Killer in the US, on the Rise

The new rules include “requirements for identifying heat hazards, developing heat illness and emergency response plans, providing training to employees and supervisors, and implementing work practice standards,” according to a White House fact sheet.

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US President Joe Biden unveiled a new plan to protect workers and communities from climate change-related weather hazards, including extreme heat, the top weather-related killer in the country.

The new rules, proposed by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), include “requirements for identifying heat hazards, developing heat illness and emergency response plans, providing training to employees and supervisors, and implementing work practice standards” such as “rest breaks, access to shade and water, and heat acclimatization for new employees.” Approximately 36 million workers across the country would be affected by the new rules, which mark the US’s first-ever federal safety standard addressing excessive heat in the workplace, according to a White House statement.

“Extreme heat is the No 1 weather-related killer in the United States,” Biden said during a speech at the Washington DC Emergency Operations Center on Tuesday, hours after his administration unveiled the proposal. “More people die from extreme heat than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined.”

The increase in extreme heat is a direct result of human-made climate change. As greenhouse gas emissions trap more heat in the atmosphere, heatwaves – the deadliest type of extreme weather event – get longer and hotter. In the US, extreme heat kills more people than any other weather hazard. An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report published Tuesday said unusually hot summer days and nights have become more common in the US over the last few decades, while heatwaves went from an average of two per year during the 1960s to six per year during the 2010s and 2020s. 

Stress on human bodies caused by heat prevents normal daily activities and our ability to cool down properly. Areas that generally have more humidity can also put lives at risk. Sweat helps our bodies cool off, but humidity changes the way sweat evaporates from the body. Not being able to cool down puts people’s health at risk, and can lead to increased cardiovascular and respiratory complications, dehydration, heatstroke, higher blood pressure, and sleep deprivation.

According to the same report, a total of 986 workers across all industry sectors in the US died from exposure to heat between 1992 and 2022, with about 34% of the total working in the construction sector.

In the fact sheet published Tuesday, the White House also condemned Republicans for continuing to “deny the very existence of climate change” and remaining “committed to repealing” the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the country’s single largest investment in climate and energy that Biden passed in August 2022, which sets aside more than US$360 billion in funding to target green transition industries like EV batteries and renewable energy development.

Experts fear that a November election win for Donald Trump could threaten the IRA after the former president and his campaign officials repeatedly warned of their intention to “cut a lot of that spending.” In his speech in Washington, Biden noted that not a single congressional Republican supported the IRA and attacked his Republican challenger and “Maga Republicans in Congress” for undoing his administration’s progress on climate, as reported by The Guardian.

“I, quite frankly, think it’s not only outrageous, it’s really stupid,” Biden said. “When disaster strikes, there are no red states or blue states.”