Record-breaking heat in the U.S. in 2021 endangered millions of workers exposed to heat illness and injury in both indoor and outdoor work environments. Workers in outdoor and indoor work settings without adequate climate-controlled environments are at risk of hazardous heat exposure, and workers of color are exposed disproportionately to hazardous levels of heat in essential jobs across these work settings.
The consequences of that extreme heat can be severe: a recent NPR/Columbia Journalism School investigation found that at least 384 workers have died from environmental heat exposure in the last decade. And the problem is getting worse: the three-year average of worker heat deaths has doubled since the early 1990s.
