Local opinion: Arizona's Legislature must protect outdoor workers during extreme heat

At a time when heat-related hospitalizations and deaths reach historical highs across Arizona, our legislature must acknowledge the moral necessity to protect individuals who are among the most affected by extreme heat: outdoor workers.

In Arizona, one in five people work outdoors and are exposed to extreme heat with little to no protections, according to a 2021 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists rightly titled, “Too Hot to Work.”

This past legislative session, I worked with concerned constituents to introduce House Bill 2628.

This law, if enacted, would ensure that outdoor workers have access to water, shade, and cool-down periods when outdoor temperatures surpass 100 degrees.

Unfortunately, the Republican majority in the Arizona House of Representatives refused to give this legislation a committee hearing, meaning we will now have to wait until the Legislature convenes next January for this bill to be reintroduced.

I applaud Gov. Katie Hobbs for recently directing the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health to monitor work conditions during extreme heat and to ensure that employers are doing their part to provide preventive safety measures. The governor’s action is an important step forward to protect Arizona’s construction workers, farmworkers, landscapers, electricians, plumbers, truck drivers, and many more. However, these protections should not be voluntary, they should be state law.

I know some GOP lawmakers will see these protections as employer mandates. I implore them to read the room: Heat-related hospitalizations and deaths related are happening in real time.

In 2023 alone, the Arizona Department of Health Services has reported 2,558 emergency room visits related to extreme heat.

Phoenix residents will soon be the first Americans to live in a major city where the average monthly temperature exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

And here in Pima County, the Medical Examiner’s Office reports that more than 50 lives have been lost to the heat over the last eight months.

None of this should be considered normal — that’s why I’ll continue to urge Arizona legislators, particularly the GOP majority, to take heat standards seriously.

Some of those most impacted most by extreme heat are hourly workers, many of them immigrants and people of color, who have no choice but to brave the elements to provide for their families. They’re our neighbors, and without them, our economy would not survive.

Cold and accessible drinking water, life-saving shade, and the chance to cool down at work during extreme heat, as presented in House Bill 2628, shouldn’t be controversial whatsoever.

Let’s save lives together. I implore lawmakers to introduce an Outdoor Worker Protection Act again this January. It’s the humane step needed to show our neighbors that we are taking climate adaption — and the well-being of our residents — seriously.