this week's heat wave is putting a new spotlight on the dangers of heat in the workplace now New Jersey doesn't have set regulations but the federal government this week started considering a new set of rules that will define what constitutes workplace heat exposure ted Goldberg reports i have witnessed them uh fainting due to suffocation and extreme heat working outside in three straight days of 100 degree heat is no picnic working indoors hasn't been much better for factory workers like John Pova Lopez there is AC but there's only AC in the offices not in the plants where where most of us work um and the fans that are provided all of them are broken leaders at the state and federal levels are debating heat standards for workers and what kind of protection should be given when temps get dangerously high we should do something about that we should not wait for something major to happen for example a death because I have seen people being asphixxiated um due to the extreme heat according to OSHA a 49year-old man died last summer after suffering heat illness while pouring concrete for the foundation of these homes in Madison richard Kishbay was working in 90 degree heat and his employer Concrete and Masonry Builders LLC received two citations from OSHA one for failing to protect employees and one for failing to notify OSHA within eight hours of his death the company was initially fined about $8,000 but it's been reduced to $5,000 after an informal settlement according to online records the case is open justice now justice now make the Road New Jersey a workers rights group in Elizabeth protested outside the state house last week demanding lawmakers pass a heat standards bill that has swirled around Trenton for over a year heat deaths are entirely preventable but this one was not prevented so another New Jersey worker didn't go home and a family surely suffered unimagin unimaginably while legislators relaxed and enjoyed time with their own families from a legislative standpoint there is great reluctance to take on the business community when the concern is is that we're overregulated but we have deaths that we can point to state Senator Joseph Cryan is the bill's prime sponsor and told us last summer how frustrated he was to see the bill stall i'm frustrated that another summer an intense summer of heat will go through without proper worker protections richard Kishbay died less than one month after that interview osha is considering new heat standards at the federal level that would require 15minute breaks every two hours in 90°ree weather and they're taking public comment until July 2nd the White House can ignore those recommendations if they want leading Cryan to make concessions to try and pass his bill let's face it this is administration that's trying to take away healthcare and provide tax cuts their values are different we've amended everything from the length of break to shade to exemptions for different different folks so that we could get votes i'll give you an example imagine picking picking you know fruit today they're exempt under this bill under the hopes that we could particularly work with particular legislators to see if we could get their support every business needs the opportunity to be flexible especially when it comes to heat alyssa Frank works for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association one of many business groups who say these proposed standards are overly ownorous we don't think that either of them should be adopted because OSHA already has something called um the general duty clause which requires employers to ensure that their workers are not exposed to an unreasonable unreasonable working environment a very relatively small percentage of of employers have their own heat related policies and when they do have heat related policies they're workers are reporting that they often get overshadowed by other you know needs so whether the the store is short staffed then you know the the the policy kind of goes out the window hana Shepard is a sociology professor at Ruckers two weeks ago she published a report that asked thousands of indoor workers about heat related illness at work shepard was surprised to see that nearly twothirds of them felt uncomfortably hot or overheated at work we expected some reporting of heat exposure but not nearly at the levels that we did and across different kinds of indoor service sector workplaces which included warehouses restaurants and retail we talk about the findings people are like "That seems weird because you assume that these big stores are you know providing enough AC for their customers."

She says when it comes to protecting workers laws are helpful but they need proper enforcement like any of these rules they are most effective when they're getting effectively enforced so the combination of these rules and standards with sufficient funding is sort of the best case scenario according to federal data more than 2,300 people died from the effects of excessive heat in the summer of 2023 the highest number on record while the weather is expected to cool off later this week the debate on how to protect workers will likely stay scorching hot for NJ Spotlight News I'm Ted Goldberg