Editorial: California needs to protect schoolchildren from extreme heat Los Angeles Times

Table Of Content

• Biden officials indefinitely postpone ban on menthol cigarettes amid election-year pushback
• Editorial: The climate crisis didn’t take a year off. California lawmakers shouldn’t either
• Boy was told to run in P.E. class as temperatures soared. Heart defect, heat cited in his death
• Betting on Trump to fail has made his stock shorters millions
• How hot is it inside Southern California’s warehouses? Ask the workers at Rite Aid

Greenhouse gas pollution is making heat waves more frequent, severe and long-lasting. California has suffered through deadly heat spells such as in 2020, when Woodland Hills reached 121 degrees — the highest temperature ever recorded in L.A. In recent years, as the state has experienced record-breaking heatwaves, cooks at fast food chains, warehouse workers and delivery drivers have repeatedly raised concerns about high temperatures. Lawmakers failed to advance other bills to address heat risks to children, including legislation that would have required master plans to make school grounds more resilient to extreme heat and statewide goals for completing schoolyard greening projects.

Biden officials indefinitely postpone ban on menthol cigarettes amid election-year pushback

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In temperatures of 95 degrees or higher, employers are required to remind workers of safe practices, encourage breaks and drinking of water, and observe them for signs or symptoms of heat illness. After multiple farmworkers died from heat-related causes in 2005, California rushed to adopt emergency rules to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat, and made them permanent the following year, becoming the first state in the nation to do so. But there’s been no such urgency when it comes to protecting indoor workers, even as rising temperatures collide with a boom in jobs at massive warehouse distribution centers that have been expanding rapidly in the Inland Empire, the high desert and other hot regions. Temperatures in warehouses, many of which lack air conditioning, can climb to 90 degrees or higher.

Editorial: The climate crisis didn’t take a year off. California lawmakers shouldn’t either

The Department of Finance’s approval of economic impact documents is among the final steps needed before the heat rules can be formally approved and implemented. There’s often little relief outside because so many schoolyards are like parking lots, without shade, trees or natural landscaping and covered in asphalt that can heat up to a skin-burning 145 degrees. A 12-year-old boy collapsed and died last month during his middle school PE class during a heat wave. State lawmakers have the opportunity to start reducing risks in classrooms and schoolyards, during recess, PE and sports by passing a few pieces of legislation still pending in Sacramento. The Los Angeles Times’ editorial board determines the positions of The Times as an institution. You can read more about the board’s mission and its members at About The Times Editorial Board.

Boy was told to run in P.E. class as temperatures soared. Heart defect, heat cited in his death

Workers can become sick, dizzy or even pass out, and are sometimes sent home without medical evaluations or care. Late last month the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, announced it will hold a public hearing on its proposed indoor heat standards on May 18. But a decision on whether to adopt them could take months, and officials say there is no chance the rules will be in place as we approach another hot summer. By law, Cal/OSHA was supposed to submit indoor heat standards for adoption by 2019, but is now more than four years behind.

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‘Rivers in the sky’ have drenched California, yet even more extreme rains are possible

The lightweight formula seals moisture in the hair cuticle, adds a brilliant shine and an additional layer of protection when silk pressing and thermal styling hair. In a surprise twist, Thomas, who said he was in favor of the new rules, suggested the standards board should move forward with a vote — if only as a symbolic gesture to signal their dissatisfaction with the Department of Finance’s decision to pull its support for the measure. A Department of Industrial Relations spokesperson said the decision to postpone the vote was made after state finance officials decided more time was needed to analyze the potential financial impact of the proposed rules for addressing indoor heat on public agencies. It doesn’t help that the state has an appalling lack of policies to protect schoolchildren from dangerous temperatures. Under California law, K-12 classrooms aren’t subject to any upper temperature limits and they aren’t required to have air conditioning. So during some of the worst heat of the year, as kids are returning to school in the fall, temperatures inside their classrooms can reach triple digits, triggering nosebleeds, headaches, vomiting and heat exhaustion.

Under the proposed rules, employers would have to provide cooling areas and monitor workers taking breaks to cool down for signs of heat illness when temperatures inside reach or surpass 82 degrees. If temperatures climb to 87 degrees, or workers are made to work near hot equipment, employers would be mandated to take additional safety precautions to either cool the broader work site, allocate more breaks, rotate out workers or make other adjustments. Workers compensation data show that between 2010 and 2018 an average of 185 workers a year claimed injuries from indoor heat, according to a 2021 report by Rand Corp. that analyzed proposed indoor heat rules. In California, 20 workers died from heat illness between 2010 and 2017, seven of them because of indoor heat, the report said. The Biden administration announced in 2021 that it would begin developing such rules to protect indoor and outdoor workers. California and other states have petitioned federal officials to put in place temporary emergency standards to protect workers by this summer.

Outdoor laborers, such as farmworkers and construction crews, have some protection under heat illness prevention standards California adopted nearly two decades ago requiring employers to provide drinking water, shade and rest breaks to recuperate from the heat. But more than a million other workers in largely non-air-conditioned warehouses, factories, kitchens and other workplaces remain unprotected, despite a legal deadline to have indoor heat standards in place by 2019. The proposed heat standards would extend to indoor workers many of the same protections currently mandated for outdoor laborers, including that employers provide cool-down areas and rest breaks to prevent overheating. In a compromise, the rules would apply to facilities where the temperature exceeds 82 degrees. Employers would have to provide additional protections, such as air conditioning, swamp coolers, or protective clothing, or changes to workers’ schedules, to prevent them from working in temperatures over 87 degrees. In 2006, California became the first state in the nation to implement heat standards for outdoor workers, requiring that employers provide access to shade and water and guarantee the right to take preventive cool-down rests when workers need them.

There were 20 work-related heat deaths reported in California between 2010 and 2017, seven due to indoor heat exposure. State officials acknowledge that the actual number of work-related heat illnesses, injuries and deaths is much higher because they are vastly underreported, but they estimate that the proposed indoor standards could cut the number of deaths and injuries nearly in half. The state’s glacial progress on indoor heat standards demonstrates a troubling lack of attention to this life-threatening hazard by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration. These rules should have been finalized years ago, as required under a 2016 law, and should already be in place to save lives and prevent illness and injuries during dangerous heat waves.

“The Department of Industrial Relations and Cal/OSHA remain committed to addressing indoor heat and are evaluating options to strengthen protections as soon as possible. We will continue to educate and protect workers from the impacts of high temperatures,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. One bill, AB 384, would require the state Department of Education to come up with recommendations for maximum indoor air temperatures in public schools and conduct an inventory of their heating and cooling systems. SB 515 would cut red tape for the installation of shade structures on school campuses, simple cooling projects that under current law can be subject to unnecessary costs and delays. Our Design Essentials® Agave & Lavender Weightless Thermal Protectant Serum provides exceptional heat protection and creates a silky-smooth finish without weighing down fine to normal hair.

State legislators do not have the luxury of taking a year off from fighting the climate crisis and should muster the votes to pass what remains of a three-bill climate accountability package before the end of the session. Climate report shows we can’t just phase out oil and gas; we have to deliberately dismantle existing infrastructure, such as coal plants in China and drilling in Alaska. Undocumented workers should not be excluded from receiving benefits when they lose their jobs considering that employers already pay $485 million into the unemployment insurance fund for them each year.

As reports surfaced of brutal conditions affecting warehouse workers’ health, the California Legislature in 2016 directed Cal/OSHA to develop an indoor heat standard by 2019. After years of bureaucratic delays, the state board overseeing workplace safety standards was expected Thursday to adopt rules that would require employers to safeguard their workers against excessive heat in indoor workspaces. But state officials have moved glacially slow to put protections in place for people toiling during the summer at indoor workplaces like warehouses and factories. These inhumane conditions aren’t just threatening the health of California’s 6 million public schoolchildren, they are detrimental to their learning. They also fuel the racial achievement gap for Black and Latino children who disproportionately suffer on scorching school days because they overwhelmingly live in hotter areas than white students and are less likely to have adequate air conditioning in their classrooms.