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xtruss · 9 months

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Too Hot to Work? America's Next Big Labor Battle

— By Giulia Carbonaro | August 14, 2023

A Newsweek photo graphic showing, from left, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Joe Biden and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. Newsweek; Source Photo; Brandon Bell/Getty; Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP Via Getty; Angelo Merendino/Getty Images

American workers are dying, local businesses are reporting a drop in productivity, and the country's economy is losing billions all because of one problem: the heat.

July was the hottest month on record on our planet, according to scientists. This entire summer, so far, has been marked by scorching temperatures for much of the U.S. South, with the thermometer reaching triple digits in several places in Texas between June and July.

In that same period, at least two people died in the state while working under the stifling heat enveloping Texas, a 35-year-old utility lineman, and a 66-year-old USPS carrier. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 36 work-related deaths due to environmental heat exposure in 2021, the latest data available. This was a drop from 56 deaths in 2020, and the lowest number since 2017.

"Workers who are exposed to extreme heat or work in hot environments may be at risk of heat stress," Kathleen Conley, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told Newsweek. "Heat stress can result in heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, or heat rashes. Heat can also increase the risk of injuries in workers as it may result in sweaty palms, fogged-up safety glasses, and dizziness. Burns may also occur as a result of accidental contact with hot surfaces or steam."

While there is a minimum working temperature in the U.S., there's no maximum working temperature set by law at a federal level. The CDC makes recommendations for employers to avoid heat stress in the workplace, but these are not legally binding requirements.

The Biden administration has tasked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with updating its worker safety policies in light of the extreme heat. But the federal standards could take years to develop—leaving the issue in the hands of individual states.

Things aren't moving nearly as fast as the emergency would require—and it's the politics around the way we look at work, the labor market, and the rights of workers in the U.S. that is slowing things down.

A Deep Political Divide

"There's remarkably little in terms of regulation, and of course, given our divided political views in this country—on the right, Republicans in general, are trying to resist more regulation that's premised on continuing global warming," Gregory DeFreitas, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy at Hofstra University, New York, told Newsweek.

There's a bill, initially introduced in 2019 and now revived by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat, that would move in the direction of setting a federal standard for temperature levels, and other heat-related requirements.

The Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act would create a universal heat standard requirement through OSHA for workers threatened by hot working conditions.

"No worker should have to endure life-threatening heat to provide for their family. This would be an important step to protect Ohio workers on the job," said Brown in a statement available on his website. "We know too many workers still work in dangerous conditions, putting their health and safety on the line every day to provide for their families. There's not much dignity in a job where you fear for your health or your life."

Newsweek has contacted Brown for comment by phone but did not receive a response.

"Given the political divisions, it's hard to say what its chances of passage are, although you'd think that another record-setting year in heat would put more pressure on taking similar action," DeFreitas said.

Members of the Hays County Emergency Service Districts and the Kyle and Buda Fire Departments rest together while combatting a wildfire during an excessive heat warning on August 08, 2023 in Hays County, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

This political division over safety regulations in the workplace, according to DeFreitas, started during Donald Trump's presidency. "The minute Trump got in office, he declared war on regulations," he said. "In 2017, he cut OSHA's job safety rules, employers were not required to make as frequent accident reports, there were to be no surprise inspections of factories and workplaces," he said.

"As a result what you have is a weakened federal agency, but that fits with the idea of deregulating businesses and giving them more freedom—the so-called voluntary self-regulation, which was common under both the Bush and the Trump administration."

He added: "That's a deep philosophical orientation of the current Republican Party, regardless of what the dangers are, whether it is climate change or anything else, they want to cut as much regulation and regulatory steps as they can." Newsweek contacted OSHA but did not receive a prompt response.

Billions Up in Smoke

As well as harming or losing people, the country is losing money to the heat.

According to a recent study by the Adrienne-Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, housed at the Atlantic Council, the U.S. is already losing approximately $100 billion on average every year from the drop in labor productivity caused by the current level of heat.

That's "approximately the annual budget for the Department of Homeland Security ($51.7 billion) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development ($44.1 billion) combined (U.S. Government Publishing Office 2019)," researchers write.

The study estimates that, if no significant effort is made to reduce emissions or adapt to extreme heat, labor productivity losses could double to nearly $200 billion by 2030 and reach $500 billion by 2050.

For labor experts, there's no doubt that the extreme heat, which is becoming more frequent due to climate change and our collective failure to bring down carbon emissions on a global level, calls for drastic changes in the way Americans work.

"It's a huge but under-appreciated issue that we're dealing with, not just with outdoor workers, but also oil and gas field workers, people working in warehouses, construction workers," Kurt Shickman, director of Extreme Heat Initiatives at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, told Newsweek. "It's a huge swath of our economy that's already increasingly affected by the heat today."

When it's really hot outside, people work more slowly and they are more prone to make mistakes and have accidents, said Shickman. "You may have situations where the weather is so dangerous that you just physically can't have people outside, so you lose work hours," he added.

"We're going to need all kinds of dramatic changes in terms of factory design, warehouse design, and workplace design," said DeFreitas. "The bill is going to be very, very high unless we do something dramatic soon."

Shickman thinks that change is going to depend on regulation. "I don't think we can count on this being self-policed by businesses. It hasn't been so far."

A State-Level Battle

In the immediate future, protecting workers from heat stress—when it's so hot that the body can't keep its ideal internal temperature and can suffer heat stroke and exhaustion—is then up to state lawmakers and the businesses themselves.

California, for example, has set a maximum temperature at which outdoor workers can safely do their job, as well as introducing other regulations aimed at protecting employees, like more frequent periods in the shade and water breaks. More action has been taken in this direction in a handful of states including Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, and New York.

But while states like California have succeeded in introducing effective safety regulations, in other states similar attempts have been rebuffed by the opposition of industry groups and lobbyists.

In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott recently approved a law rescinding city and county ordinances requiring mandatory water breaks for construction workers—a move that generated much controversy and backlash from Texas Democrats. Supporters of the bill, on the other hand, said the law will help rein in local and county officials that have exceeded their authority and will give small businesses the consistency they need to invest and grow.

Heat waves cause distortion on the horizon as a pedestrian walks along South Las Vegas Blvd in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 30, 2023, as temperatures reach more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP Via Getty Images

In Nevada, lawmakers for months have put off giving final approval to heat safety regulations adopted by OSHA, as the state's Department of Business and Industry discusses the concerns of industry groups over the new policies, as reported by The Washington Post.

"With our workers outside during extreme heat, requiring basic water and rest breaks is just common sense—and it will save lives," Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, told Newsweek. "As we continue to experience record heat waves, we need to hold employers accountable and protect workers across the country."

The Cost of Change

Investing in making the workplace safer for employees might cost companies more than they're willing to spend, even as they are losing workers' productivity and hours.

"A lot of the generalized skilled work, what we would call lower skilled work, is in warehouses," Lindsey Cameron, an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, told Newsweek. "Warehouses are big, massive football fields. It costs a lot of money and a lot of infrastructure to try to cool down. And sometimes it's just impossible because you have all these trucks going in and out and people going in and out."

Some businesses have already moved to protect their workers from heat, knowing that the cost of ignoring the issue could eventually be higher than trying to fix it.

A construction worker moves materials as people sit and drink water along the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2023, as temperatures are expected to reach record highs. Brenden Smialowski/AFP Via Getty Images

Jose Garza, the national environmental health and safety leader at California-headquartered general contractor DPR Construction, told Newsweek that the company—which has over 10,000 employees—has implemented heat safety procedures that go beyond the state-mandated regulation, including introducing cooling stations, handing out electrolyte drinks, and giving more breaks to workers.

"We see it as the cost of taking care of people and the right thing to do," he said. "You can either plan for it or react to it, because if you're not planning for it, those breaks are going to happen when the worker is no longer able to work, when they're sick, when they're well beyond the point where their bodies are unable to cool themselves down."

Garza said that employers who care about their workers should go "above and beyond" available regulation to protect them from heat.

'A Long Time' Coming

Experts agree that change won't come from the businesses—and will likely not come soon unless there's committed political action.

"It's really going to take both state and federal movement on this," DeFreitas said. "And I'm hoping that certainly in states like New York, where there does seem to be more attention to workplace safety, that they can move in the direction of the federal bill that's now stuck in progress."

"I don't think the United States has such a great backbone when it comes to climate issues," said Cameron. "We pulled out of the Paris Agreement [under former President Trump in 2017, but rejoined in 2021 under President Joe Biden]. I think there's going to be a lot more attention given to climate change, but it may take a long time to be able to see those changes."

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defundthepolicedestroythegop · 10 months

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https://www.accuweather.com/en/business/it-comes-up-on-you-fast-scorching-heat-is-crushing-american-businesses/1563234

While the true economic impact has yet to be tabulated for this weather event — the nature of excessive heat, its varying effects and sizable reach make that a tall order — recent studies have shown that extreme heat could cost the United States $100 billion annually from the productivity loss alone. If left unchecked, it could sap away one-sixth of global economic activity by the year 2100.

Hmm.

Workers, especially those who work outdoors, are less productive, Lafakis added. Moody’s Analytics estimates that chronic physical risk from heat stress could reduce worldwide GDP by up to 17.6% by 2100. “The way that heat hits us, our thinking gets slowed down, our concentration is really tough, our hand-eye coordination is off, we’re tired, we make mistakes,” said Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center at the Atlantic Council, which in 2021 released a report analyzing the potential $100 billion in productivity losses. The losses are steepest in sectors such as agriculture and construction, but no industry or business is immune, she said. Even if an employee works in an air-conditioned environment, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are afforded the same luxury at home, she said, adding that disruptions in sleep could lead to exhaustion and poor performance the following day. “The heat is accelerating so quickly that our self-perceptions of risk are not keeping pace,” she said. “And so that also means as an employer, our perceptions of our workers’ risks are not keeping pace either.”

HMM...

Excessive heat has long been an issue that outdoor-specific industries have to manage; however, the increasingly extreme nature of these events will increasingly be a drag on businesses and the economy, said Joshua Graff Zivin, an economist and University of California San Diego professor who has studied heat’s effect on workers. “You think about the kind of heat we’re seeing now, and there’s not an early enough time to start to make this work,” Graff Zivin said. That leads to diminished hours worked and, ultimately, to less output, he said. “This might be the first time in modern US history where we might see a small dip for quarterly GDP, if not annual,” he said. “It’s not crazy to imagine this quarter’s GDP is going to look a little bit different.”

So, do you think this might finally make the government take climate change seriously...?

...Naaaah.

#climate change #climate crisis #climate emergency #climate and environment #fossil fuels #global warming #environment #climate action

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questlation · 2 years

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Extreme Heat Reduces Labor Outputs by 25% for Outdoor Workers in New Delhi Today, Economic Losses Climb to 30% by 2050

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center at the Atlantic Council released “Hot Cities, Chilled Economies: Impacts of Extreme Heat on Global Cities,” a new report detailing the social and economic effects of climate-driven extreme heat through the prism of 12 cities, spanning six continents, covering an urban population of more…

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rbhcom55 · 2 years

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#funny #buzz animals

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linuxgamenews · 3 years

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Humble Down to Earth Bundle lets you support the planet

Humble Down to Earth Bundle offers up some great games for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to the creative efforts of the Humble Bundle team. Which comes with some fantastic games but limited native support. Humble Down to Earth Bundle releases due to the Love the planet. While allowing yourself to get lost in the natural beauty of games. We're talking about titles like Beyond Blue, Summer in Mara, and Lost Ember. These are not native Linux games. But since the whole point of this bundle is to celebrate Earth Day. Your purchase helps support the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center or a charity of your choice. Pay $1 USD will get you three games, one native Linux title, Figment with Very Positive reviews. This is not too bad, since the total cost for the games in this bundle is roughly $141 USD. But the best part, all of these titles off solid Proton support. Which is more or less the saving grace for great games.

Humble Down to Earth Bundle

Pay $1 USD Tier:

Figment

Yono and the Celestial Elephants (with Proton)

The Beat the average price for Humble Down to Earth Bundle:

ABZÛ (with Proton)

ARIDA: Backland’s Awakening (with Proton)

Never Alone

Pay $12 or more to get three more Steam games:

Beyond Blue (with Proton)

Summer in Mara (with Proton)

LOST EMBER + soundtrack (with Proton)

All of the games in this bundle are available on Steam. Most of which have support for Windows PC. Both Figment and Never Alone are the only games for Linux. But the Proton support across the board averages at a Platinum level. Making the Humble Down to Earth Bundle a worthy option for Linux gamers. As with all Humble Bundles, you will support charity. Of course, you choose where the money goes. So either between the publishers, Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center. Maybe even a charity of your choice via PayPal Giving Fund. Either way, Humble Down to Earth Bundle offers some great games with Very Positive reviews. Support for some games on Linux, as well as Mac and Windows PC. This bundle will be live until Friday, April 30th, 2021. So you have some fantastic games with time to decide which tier best suits you.

#humble down to earth bundle #great games #linux #gaming news #humble bundle #ubuntu #mac #windows #pc

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sciencespies · 4 years

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Coalition Calls for Naming Heat Waves Like Hurricanes

https://sciencespies.com/news/coalition-calls-for-naming-heat-waves-like-hurricanes/

Coalition Calls for Naming Heat Waves Like Hurricanes

A blistering heat wave is lashing the western United States. Just a few days ago, temperatures in Death Valley’s Furnace Creek rose to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. The measurement still needs to be verified by climatologists, but it could be the hottest temperature ever reliably measured on our planet, report Concepcion de Leon and John Schwartz of the New York Times.

Heat waves can be deadly, especially in Death Valley, where the National Park Service advised visitors to avoid hiking after 10 a.m. and to “travel prepared to survive.” Heat waves kill more than 600 people annually in the U.S., exceeding the death toll wrought by more visible extreme weather such as hurricanes, tornadoes or floods in all but the most exceptional years.

Yet, unlike severe storms such as Hurricane Maria, the silent scourge of extreme heat can ravage communities without being named or categorized. Now, a group of public health and climate experts are hoping to change that by championing the development of a system to give heat waves names and rankings just like hurricanes and tropical storms, reports Shannon Osaka for Grist.

The group, called the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance (EHRA), argues that naming and ranking the severity of heat waves would help raise awareness of their dangers, helping communities to prepare for them and hopefully save lives. In a statement, the EHRA states that heat waves are projected to impact more than 3.5 billion people globally by 2050 as climate change causes them to increase in frequency, duration and intensity.

Reporting for the Washington Post, Jason Samenow cites recent studies that suggest human-caused climate change is already responsible for cranking up planet Earth’s thermostat—with some parts of the world already getting so hot they become unlivable.

“Naming heat waves is the clearest way to communicate the dangers and severity of this risk which is growing,” Kathy Baughman-McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center which organized the EHRA, tells the Post.

People over 65 and those with chronic medical conditions such as diabetes or Alzheimer’s are at particular risk during heat waves, reports Jack J. Lee for Science News. Aside from the dangers of the heat itself, increased electrical demand from air-conditioning units can cause blackouts (as is currently on display in California) that can be life threatening for people who depend on medical devices or refrigerated medications.

Due to America’s historic and ongoing systemic racism, minorities are also at greater risk during extreme heat events, Aaron Bernstein, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital and a member of the new alliance, tells Science News. Decades of discriminatory housing policies have resulted in communities of color disproportionately inhabiting the urban core of cities. In these so-called “urban heat islands,” the hottest days are exacerbated by oceans of blacktop and concrete that have been left unshaded by the absence of green spaces. Earlier this year, a study found that the segregated neighborhoods engineered by these racist policies, called “redlining,” are 5 degrees hotter than non-redlined neighborhoods across the entire U.S., reported Nina Lakhani for the Guardian in January.

Baughman-McLeod tells the Post that the idea of giving heat waves names came from the California Climate Insurance Working Group, which is headed by Ricardo Lara, California’s insurance commissioner. Lara, who has joined the EHRA, will seek to enact a policy of naming heat waves in California. Ultimately though, the project of naming and categorizing heat waves will require international cooperation and coordination from organizations including the National Weather Service and World Meteorological Association.

One of the most fundamental tasks before the international coalition will be crafting a definition of a heatwave. In the absence of an accepted definition, “we don’t have a common understanding of the threat we face,” Bernstein tells Science News.

But that task may not be a simple one, nor is creating a system for ranking heat waves’ severity. Larry Kalkstein, a professor emeritus at the University of Miami and an expert on heat and human health, tells the Post, “[t]he definition of a major heat event varies from one professional organization to the next. Is maximum temperature more important than minimum temperature? Is duration of the event most important? Our research finds that early summer heat events are more damaging to health than late summer heat events. How do you account for this in the rankings?”

The relative danger posed by a heat event is further complicated by the particular region’s humidity and the climate its residents are used to, Kalkenstein adds.

A crucial second step to naming and categorizing the severity of heat waves, according to Simon Mason, a senior research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University, is properly informing the public about how to respond.

“Unless we design management and strategies around this naming convention, we’ll be missing the main point of doing this,” he tells Grist.

Speaking with the Post, Baughman-McLeod acknowledged that there are important questions that still need to be answered. “We need to build a framework that’s robust enough to be meaningful,” she says. “The [heat wave] threshold needs to be at the right level and frequency, knowing there will be questions to get answered. It won’t be perfect, but we’ll refine it and learn as we go.”

#News

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quantustecsol · 4 years

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Coalition seeks to name extreme heat waves

Source: Security Magazine Coalition seeks to name extreme heat waves

A new, international coalition put together by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center wants to name and rank heat waves.

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csrgood · 4 years

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Announcing Resilient Cities Catalyst: a New Nonprofit Built on the Legacy of 100 Resilient Cities

Anchored in knowledge gained in the development of the urban resilience movement, Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC) formally launched today in the lead-up to the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi. Led by former executives of 100 Resilient Cities, RCC is a new nonprofit comprised of urban practitioners and resilience experts with deep experience working in cities around the world.

Through decades of combined experience in urban resilience, RCC staff have seen first-hand the risks and opportunities inherent in the world’s cities. By 2050, more than 70 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas and already nearly 500 million urban residents live in high-risk coastal areas. RCC will partner with cities to support innovation, leverage existing city resources, and reinforce continuity of effort in the face of these rapid changes.

RCC also announced today the creation of a Board of Directors, including:

Dr. Judith Rodin: Former President of The Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania, author of The Resilience Dividend, and founder of 100 Resilient Cities.

Henk Ovink: Special Envoy for International Water Affairs for the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Principal of Rebuild by Design.

With initial funding support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Facebook, RCC will help cities build partnerships to understand, prioritize, and address their risks and chronic stresses through three core service areas:

Resilience Roadmaps to create enabling environments for action through participatory resilience planning processes.

Project Incubators to develop projects that maximize resilience impact, ensuring cities and communities have access to the technical, financial, and project preparation expertise required to move from concept to implementation.

Catalyst Labs to facilitate the next generation of solutions and create new communities of practice in the urban resilience field.

“Cities represent our greatest opportunity for impact, while also posing the greatest risks to future shocks and stresses,” said Michael Berkowitz, Founding Principal, RCC and Former President, 100 Resilient Cities. “RCC is proud to launch today with a staff and board comprised of leading thinkers and practitioners in urban resilience, all optimistic about the potential in the world’s cities.”

"When The Rockefeller Foundation pioneered 100 Resilient Cities, we hoped that it would spark a global movement with many actors. We knew that helping cities better face the threats of the 21st Century would be a decades-long challenge, and I am proud that many of the 100RC leadership team are carrying on this work through the Resilient Cities Catalyst,” said Dr. Judith Rodin, RCC Board Member.

“Cities are facing extremes of too much or too little water. These extremes are being exacerbated by climate change. Whether it’s chronic flooding, water pollution, or droughts, water challenges are crippling cities’ economies, communities, families, and the natural systems so much needed to support them. Water can be the cities’ leverage for catalytic change, but leveraging water assets requires an empowered enabling environment. In this way, the RCC approach gets right to the heart of the matter. It directs capital and builds capacity where it is needed most: with the city institutions, urbanist professionals, and political and community leaders whose partnership are the necessary foundation for transformational change in the trajectory of our resilient urban future,” said Henk Ovink, RCC Board Member.

“We are proud to build on our partnership as an early supporter of Resilient Cities Catalyst. In the wake of historic wildfires in 2018, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation saw the opportunity to partner with Resilient Cities Catalyst to develop innovative approaches to preparing for and managing wildfires in Southern California. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with RCC as they lead the way in helping communities become more resilient,” said Peter Laugharn, President and Chief Executive Officer, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

“We’re excited to see the resilience work that began at The Rockefeller Foundation, thrive across a constellation of different actors, including the Resilient Cities Catalyst, the Global Resilient Cities Network, and the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center,” said Elizabeth Yee, Managing Director, Climate and Resilience, The Rockefeller Foundation.

"Resilient Cities Catalyst is building on the strength of 100 Resilient Cities to drive needed change in urban policy and planning around the world. We are committed to working together to bring interdisciplinary research and collaborative project development to our partners through the Resilience Accelerator,” said Kate Orff, Director of Urban Design, Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and Faculty Director, Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes.

“Michael and the Resilient Cities Catalyst team played a critical role in elevating the practice of urban resilience worldwide through 100 Resilient Cities. I look forward to building on those efforts with them directly and through their support for a range of city collaborations, including the Global Resilient Cities Network,” said Toby Kent, Chief Resilience Officer, Melbourne, Australia.

RCC is one of a number of important initiatives needed to help cities be more prepared for the 21st Century challenges and hopes to partner with these efforts, across sectors, to leverage our collective muscle to make cities more livable, sustainable, and resilient.

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About Resilient Cities Catalyst

Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC) joins with cities worldwide to help them better leverage the experience, resources, and energies of their leaders, managers, communities, companies, and urbanists to realize their collective visions. Founded by executives from 100 Resilient Cities, RCC’s work is anchored in the knowledge gained in the development of the urban resilience movement. For more info, please visit: www.rcc.city.

source: https://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/43476-Announcing-Resilient-Cities-Catalyst-a-New-Nonprofit-Built-on-the-Legacy-of-100-Resilient-Cities-?tracking_source=rss

#CSR #corporate social responsibility #social good #philanthropy #employee engagement #workplace givi

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