Airport workers in Phoenix. A mail carrier and a fiber optic cable installer in California. This summer, workers across the country are staring down the barrel of on-the-job illness, injury, or death due to extreme heat. According to the National Weather Service, heat kills more people each year than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes combined.
July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded, and we can already feel the above-average heat predicted this summer in the United States. Last month, more than 100 million people in 27 states found themselves under heat alerts. Even in my home state of Maine, known for its cold temperatures, some of our northernmost towns broke records for high temperatures in late June. This will only worsen as climate change accelerates.
