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Recent weeks have seen Earth’s highest average temperatures on record, according to climate studies, yet most U.S. workers have few legal protections related to extreme heat conditions. The federal government is in the midst of a years-long process to draft heat safety rules, and only six states have their own regulations that guarantee laborers access to water, rest and shade — the three elements that medical professionals say can protect workers from heat illness.

The result, experts say, is that workers in a bevy of industries — from farmworkers to roofers and delivery drivers to sanitation professionals — are left to defend themselves under the scorching sun.

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Between 2017 and 2022, the deaths of 121 workers on the job were officially attributed directly to heat, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which says that number is almost surely an undercount because heat-related deaths are often blamed on other workplace accidents or underlying health conditions. For example, an individual who mishandles dangerous machinery in heated conditions may have been severely dehydrated to the point of incapacitation, or a roofer who falls to their death may have lost consciousness due to heat.

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That danger is only going to get worse, both over this summer and in years to come.

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In Texas, lawmakers nullified heat safety ordinances in Dallas and Austin as part of a sweeping statute that stripped local governments’ rights to regulate workplace issues. The Republican-controlled Texas legislature found those and other local workplace ordinances too burdensome on employers that do business across the state and especially on the booming construction industry.

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