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Long-awaited heat protection regulations for workers have been finalized and will go into effect Monday — two days after the official end of a deadly “heat season” that took the lives of dozens of Marylanders this summer.
With just days left in the annual Heat-Related Illness Surveillance Report monitoring period — the so-called heat season — the Maryland Health Department had recorded 25 deaths and just under 1,200 emergency room visits due to heat-related illnesses this year.
That was a sharp increase from the nine heat-related deaths recorded last year, and the most since 2018, when 28 people had died from heat illness. The highest number of heat deaths in a year was reported in 2012 when storm-driven power outages left many without air conditioning for days and 46 people died.
The 2024 data was through Sept. 21, and the number could go up as the season does not officially end until this Saturday, Sept. 28.
But state officials said that while the heat season may be over this weekend for record-keeping purposes, the heat could still be around for a while as the climate continues to warm, with hot weather starting earlier and staying later.
“As our climate warms, both here in Maryland and nationally, we’re seeing increases in heat-related deaths and heat-related illnesses reported,” said Clifford S. Mitchell, director of the Environmental Health Bureau in the Maryland Department of Health.
The new regulations from Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) have been years in the making and will formally take effect on Sept. 30, according to a Maryland Department of Labor official. The regulations will ensure that employers provide ample breaks, water and cooling opportunities for workers.
“As the temperature warms, the risk of people overexerting themselves and getting into trouble is going to increase,” Mitchell said. “So that’s the reason MOSH’s new standard is so important because it’s going to help people recognize and prevent people from getting to the point where they are feeling sick.”
The regulations, officially published last week by the Maryland Division of Labor and Industry, offer a unified standard to avoid heat stress but provide flexibility for employers to tailor methods and strategies to the needs of their workplaces.
In addition to ensuring that employers provide workers with the opportunity for sufficient breaks, water and cooling, the new regulations will also require more frequent and longer breaks when the heat index reaches 90 degrees and 100 degrees. The rules will apply to both indoor and outdoor workers.
“The goal was to have a standard that would protect workers from extreme heat and would still allow businesses to operate,” Mitchell said.
“The heat standard of workers is something that the Department of Labor has been working on for quite some time,” he said. “It’s a very complicated standard. It required a lot of discussion with industry, with labor unions and workers, with health care providers.”
Mitchell could not say how many of the 25 heat deaths this year were people who got overheated while on the job, but he did say that “workers are at significant risk as the temperature warms.”
At least one of the heat deaths this summer occurred on the job: Ronald Silver II died Aug. 2 from a heat-related illness while working at his job with the Baltimore City Department of Public Works’ Bureau of Solid Waste.
The health department’s most recent data shows that 14 people who died this year from heat-related illness were aged 65 or older. Nine people who died were between the ages of 45 and 64, and two were between 18 and 44.
Most fatalities have been among men, with 19 men dying this heat season compared to just six women. Twelve people who died were Black, 11 were white, one was Hispanic and the last victim’s race was listed as “other.”
Mitchell noted that the current reports have not shown any pediatric fatalities due to heat this year.
“As terrible as any death is that could be prevented due to heat, the fact that we appear to have gone by without any pediatric fatalities is one bright spot,” he said.
This heat season, at least 1,190 Marylanders landed in the emergency room or urgent care for heat-related illnesses, beating the previous record of 901 emergency room visits set in 2021.
Mitchell said the increase in heat cases this year over recent years could be skewed by the fact that heat-related deaths were driven down during the pandemic.
“There’s a bit of a caveat here. Obviously, heat-related deaths are related to what’s happening with climate and weather,” he said. “But like everything else, COVID is almost certainly responsible for some of the change in patterns that we’ve seen in the last couple years.”
“There were big disruptions to ordinary life, and that included some of the things that may be risk factors for heat-related illness and injury,” he said.
Mitchell says that the 2024 heat season coming to an end emphasizes “the importance of preventive interventions, like the heat-related prevention standards from MOSH.”
“What we’ve seen this year confirms the trend that we’ve continued to see, which is as the planet warms, and as Maryland warms, we see an increasing number of people at risk of serious heat-related illnesses. We’re seeing an increase in the number of emergency department and urgent care visits, and we continue to see that across the state,” he said.
