Laws don't protect outdoor workers from heat. Advocates say the consequences are deadly
It is 105 degrees, a relatively mild temperature in Phoenix — during an otherwise brutal summer heat wave.
J. Gonzalez drinks a blue Gatorade outside a gas station near Scottsdale. The farm where he works is across the street. He is joined by a few other farmworkers who converge on the gas station to cool off from the sweltering sun. They rub cubed ice from the soda fountain dispenser on the back of their necks and tuck away in the scanty shade of the building.
Gonzalez is undocumented and used an alias to shield his identity while discussing what it’s like working in the heat.
“Qué calor,” Gonzalez says. It's so hot. He removes an L.A. Dodgers ball cap and wipes sweat from his upper brow with the torn piece of white cloth he keeps in the back pocket of his blue jeans.
Gonzalez, whose skin is bronzed from the sun, says at this time of year, he elects to work fewer hours because of the extreme temperatures, typically getting the brunt of his daily load out of the way early in the day. But during peak season he will sometimes spend up to 60 hours a week in the fields, without extra pay.
Arizona does not have a state law regarding overtime pay for farm workers.
“It is hot, but you deal with it,” Gonzalez said, his grin unwavering. “Every day.”
Gonzalez said he has been working in the fields of various farms in Arizona since 2017. While he does not believe he has ever experienced heat stroke, he says he has seen his coworkers experience feelings of lightheadedness and dizziness. Some have passed out after hours without air conditioning or shade.
“They just sit in the dirt,” he said. “But water, it’s our best friend.”
The conversation is cut short as the group of men hop into the beat-up pickup truck that brought them here to finish out the workday. Gonzalez waves with two fingers before the truck heads back to the field. Their “cool down” trip to the gas station was under 10 minutes.
Gonzalez said it would likely be the only time during the workday they would have access to air conditioning and shade.
The heat is more than just a nuisance for those who work outside, whether in fields, at construction sites or other similar jobs. It is a serious threat to both their long- and short-term health. And sometimes the heat can turn deadly, especially for those who work in the agricultural industry.
Earlier in the summer, a farmworker in Yuma collapsed and died while working in extreme temperatures. The death sparked calls for stronger federal regulations to protect workers from extreme heat.
Farmworkers are covered under federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, but when it comes to dealing with heat, OSHA leaves the decision to mandate shade and water breaks up to the state.
Arizona law does not require farms to provide workers with such potentially lifesaving breaks. That means farmworkers, who often experience workdays that can extend over 12 hours, are not entitled to paid breaks that provide air or shade, or assured water breaks, even in record-shattering temperatures and heat waves like those that baked Arizona in July.
“There is no logical or defensible reason why these workers don't have basic protections,” said state Rep. Mariana Sandoval, D-Goodyear, who represents the district where the Yuma farmworker collapsed and died.
The United Farm Workers, a labor union for agricultural workers, says that since federal regulations do not mandate adequate breaks, hydration, or shade, workers in most states are left at risk of developing heat-related illness.
“Heat is a life-or-death issue for farm workers,” said Antonio De Loera, the director of communications for the UFW. “‘In our view there aren’t adequate state level regulations in Arizona.”
Some Arizona legislators, including Sandoval, were calling on Gov. Katie Hobbs to declare a heat-related emergency and to provide additional cooling, water and other resources for the state’s unhoused population and those working outside in the heat.
“Our state has failed the farmworkers who feed all of our communities, and all others who must work outside in record-breaking temperatures,” said Sandoval. “Arizona does not have heat protections for workers that would mandate shade, water breaks, rest and recovery periods and other protections to prevent heat-related illnesses.
In August, Hobbs declared a heat emergency in three counties — Maricopa, Pinal and Coconino — freeing up money for cooling centers and other aid. The declaration did not include Yuma.
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In the hottest month of the year, in the hottest state in the country. workers enter the fields in Yuma County to harvest summer crops. They wear wide-brimmed, double-weaved hats to shield their faces from the sun. Despite sizzling temperatures, nearly every inch of their skin is covered, from long-sleeve flannels to neck flaps to prevent burns and blisters.
They brace for the extreme conditions of a Sonoran Desert summer to not only provide for their families, but to help bring food to tables across America. While the work is imperative for food security and the more than $23 billion agriculture provides to Arizona’s economy, the work can turn dangerous, quickly.
On July 20, Dario Mendoza, 25, went to work in los campos, or the fields, in Yuma, as he did every other day of the season. It was in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave that, even by Arizona standards, was severe. It was the 11th day in a row of temperatures at or above 110 degrees. By 9 a.m. temperatures had already reached the mid-90s, and would later climb to a high of 116, one degree shy of the 117-degree record for that day.
Mendoza collapsed twice in the field where he worked before he was taken to the Yuma Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead before 10 a.m.
The Yuma County medical examiner declared his death heat-related.
Just one day before Mendoza’s death, 29-year-old Efrain Lopez Garcia died on a south Florida farm during a historic heat wave there. While his cause of death was not released, reports claim his symptoms were in line with the diagnosis for heat stroke.
“Dario Mendoza's death from heat stroke was tragic and (we) should make sure no one else suffers that same fate,” Sandoval said. “Like so many farmworkers in my district, he was just trying to make a living to support his family.”
In response to Arizona’s record-shattering heat during the month of July, Hobbs implemented a new policy on July 17, giving state regulators new powers to inspect workplaces to ensure employers are providing enough water, rest and shade to workers in industries with high rates of heat-related illnesses and deaths. Employers would face citations for failing to provide enough water, rest and shade to workers. The policy would apply to all outdoor workers, including construction and road workers.
The UFW said it was not enough, and others question the state's abilities to perform adequate inspections for the more than 20,000 farms and ranches across the state. Advocates for stronger regulation worry that without permanent amendments to Arizona’s current OSHA regulations, this policy is a short-term solution to a long-lasting issue.
The UFW says it does not believe the decision to protect farmworkers from heat should be left up to the states, and is calling on the Department of Labor and OSHA to immediately issue a nationwide permanent rule on heat protection standards for outdoor workers.
The UFW says the recent farm worker heat-inflicted deaths and a Texas ban that eliminates water break ordinances at the municipal level are cause for major concern.
“We need OSHA to establish permanent heat protections for farm workers in Arizona now,” said Esther Ruiz, a long-life farmworker from Yuma. “Farmworkers here need heat regulations because the heat is unbearable, and things are getting worse and worse every year.”
California, Oregon, Washington and Minnesota are the only states with heat-standard laws that are meant to monitor heat and protect workers from the risk of heat illnesses.
“We want OSHA to issue a permanent nationwide heat-safety rule requiring shade, water and breaks because your safety on the job should not be dependent on what state you live in,” said De Loera, with the UFW. “We’ve seen in California that these rules, even imperfectly implemented, do make a big difference.”
Heat Illness prevention standards are required in California when temperatures reach at least 80 degrees. The standards require employers to provide their employees with training and planning for extreme heat, and mandate shade and water.
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Heat can have serious impacts on public health, especially for outdoor workers. Heat-related illnesses are the most common health effects experienced by farmworkers because of their prolonged exposure to high temperatures, a recent study by American University found.
These illnesses are on a continuum of ailments, ranging from mild symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, headaches, and muscle cramps to more severe conditions such as life-threatening heat strokes.
De Loera says there is often pressure for farmworkers to continue working in extreme conditions, even when they begin feeling ill. Factors like immigration status and higher levels of poverty among farmworkers put them at a crossroads between their health and their wallets.
Levels of poverty are four times higher among agricultural workers as compared to non-agricultural workers, according to a study by the World Bank.
“Many workers have this feeling of 'I need to work because I need to pay the bills,'” De Loera said.
De Loera says workers being paid by “piece rate” could be contributing to more heat-related illnesses because they may push through feelings of tiredness and dizziness just to make more money. When workers are paid by piece rate, their income is dependent on the number of buckets or bags they pick, rather than how many hours they work.
“There’s this perverse incentive to push yourself to pick as much as possible, to fill that bin as quick as possible,” De Leora said. “And what we see is so may workers feel this pressure where they feel lightheaded or dizzy, and too many workers try to push through those feelings.”
And because a large share of farmworkers are undocumented, many do not have equitable access to health care and are often reluctant to seek it, due to language barriers or fear of deportation.
The United States Department of Agriculture estimates nearly 50% of agriculture workers are undocumented, and another 25% are migrants with visas or work authorization. And a 2015 study conducted by San Diego State University, found that roughly 82.7% of farmworkers did not have health insurance.
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How AI, personalized medicine could help prevent heat illnesses
While the UFW and lawmakers are pushing for federal regulation, Pope Mosely, a research professor at Arizona State University and an intensive care physician, is looking at how personalized medicine could prevent heat deaths.
The research could be key for better understanding the heat-related health effects on people who work outdoors.
“Heat is the force multiplier of illness and the force multiplier of health-related social needs, said Mosely. “People who are unhoused or outdoors for a long period of time, are at the mercy of a very powerful force.”
That powerful force is heat.
Mosley is using artificial intelligence to combine climate factors, social factors, and illness factors to better understand an individual’s risk of dying from heat, rather than looking at an average over a population.
He hopes that by looking at individuals’ specific vulnerabilities, researchers will gain a better understanding of who is most at risk when exposed to extreme heat. Once this risk is assessed, doctors would be able to get those people medicine or treatment before complications can arise.
Both Mosely and De Leora believe that heat deaths are severely undercounted because tracking agencies may often leave out people with pre-existing conditions, like heart disease or asthma, who are more vulnerable to heat.
Mosely hopes his research will also eventually lead to a more accurate death count that could give doctors and scientists a better understanding of the consequences of extreme heat on public health.
“There’s a lot of serious illnesses that are heat-related: heat stroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, people falling and burning themselves,” Mosely said. “What we don’t count as heat-related is that many, many diseases are worsened by heat,”
Hot weather makes the human body work harder to keep its core temperature to normal levels, putting extra strain on the heart, lungs and kidneys, according to research from the British Heart Foundation.
“The most important factor is duration,” Mosely said. “So how long does the temperature stay up and for how many days.”
In July, Phoenix experienced it worst heat wave of all time: 31 days with temperatures at or above 110 degrees.
And this heat wave, while breaking records, is not an isolated incident of prolonged heat. In the early 1900s, Phoenix averaged five days a year of temperatures over 110. In recent years the average is closer to 27 days a year, according to ASU climatologists.
Mosely says these prolonged heat waves are increasing health risks associated with extreme heat. He says human bodies operate like air conditioners and when there is no relief from the heat the body is constantly running to keep itself cool.
“That’s kind of how I look at people in heat, is your air conditioning running all the time or not,” said Mosely. “And if you’re running all the time, that’s a bad thing.”
And for farmworkers, that internal air conditioner works overtime, as they spend long hours exposed to extreme temperatures.
The latest projections indicate that Phoenix could see more than 130 days over 100 degrees by 2040 and more than half the year in the triple digits by the end of this century. The UFW says on the heels of the hottest month ever recorded, and likely rising temperatures to come, there has never been a more pressing time for these standards that would protect farmworkers.
Heat training and education can benefit workers, the UFW says, but the most important tool to combat the effects of extreme temperatures is water and a place to cool off.
Jake Frederico covers environment issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to jake.frederico@arizonarepublic.com.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Labor advocates say outdoor workers need legal protections from heat
