ANNAL$ OF DeSANTI$TAN: Florida banned local laws to protect outdoor workers. Hence, OSHA Proposed Heat Protections for Workers. Two Years Later, They’re Still Not Final. (Amy Green, Inside Climate News, July 24, 2026)

From Pulitzer Prize winning Inside Climate News:

OSHA Proposed Heat Protections for Workers. Two Years Later, They’re Still Not Final.

In Florida, where the state has banned adoption of local laws intended to protect outdoor workers, the lack of federal rules leaves individuals particularly vulnerable.

By Amy Green

July 24, 2026

People work on a farm during a heat wave in Homestead, Fla., on July 15, 2023. Credit: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

The 28-year-old had arrived with a work visa from Mexico just a day before he collapsed at a Florida farm while placing wooden stakes, supports for bell pepper plants. The farmworker had already voiced symptoms of heat illness: fatigue and leg pain. He was found later that day in a shallow drainage ditch. His death was attributed to the unforgiving heat. 

Every year, thousands of U.S. workers suffer heat-related illnesses and injuries. A total of 1,042 deaths related to heat were documented between 1992 and 2022, an average of 34 annually, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But for the nation’s roughly 32 million outdoor laborers, including farmworkers, construction workers and landscapers, there are few federal or state heat-related safeguards. In Florida, the farmworker’s death was one of three such fatalities in 2023, according to an affidavit Earthjustice, a nonprofit group that litigates environmental issues, submitted to OSHA. The man’s employer eventually was fined between $15,000 and $30,000 after OSHA determined he had not been provided with sufficient water, rest and shade, among other problems. (Most private sector employers are required to inform OSHA of workplace fatalities or severe injuries.)

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