McKINNEY, Texas — At the start of every work day, construction worker Charles Smith puts on the essentials: hard hat, safety glasses, reflective vest, and a small, watch-like band for his wrist.
But rather than track time, the band’s purpose is to ensure he doesn’t overheat while working during sweltering summer days in Texas. The wristband monitors his heart rate, core body temperature, stress level and more. If it detects signs of overheating, it warns him and his safety manager, advising Smith to rest and hydrate. The device serves as an early warning system to prevent heat-related injuries and illnesses.
The technology is one way that workplaces are setting up employee protections as summers grow hotter due to climate change. On Sunday, the Earth reached the hottest day ever measured, according to a European climate service group. And in the absence of federal heat rules for workers, which the Biden administration recently proposed, some employers in states without rules are taking it upon themselves to safeguard employees from extreme heat.
“We can catch it before it happens,” said Seth Campbell, safety manager for the construction company Rogers-O’Brien, Smith’s employer. The company started using the monitoring technology last summer.
UPS recently equipped delivery drivers with cooling hats and sleeves that provide relief from heat — and increased access to ice, cold water and electrolytes for employees, according to its website. It also has added more cooling equipment to its vehicles and facilities, vice president of global communications Genny Bowman wrote in an email. That includes installing exhaust heat shields to lower vehicle floor temperatures, as well as fans in package cars and more fans in its facilities.
Some greenhouse companies, including Eden Green and Cox Farms, have said they adjust workers’ schedules to account for excessive heat, such as starting them earlier in the morning, breaking during peak heat and returning in the evening as temperatures cool.
During June’s record-breaking heat wave in the Midwest and Northeast, an organization in Columbus, Ohio, prepared frozen towels and cold water for its workers to stay cool.
And in some California warehouses, where indoor temperatures can reach above 90 degrees, employers have provided cooling vests with ice packs in them and bandanas that get cool when wet, according to Tim Shadix, legal director for the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a nonprofit dedicated to improving working conditions in Southern California’s warehouse industry.
Such measures can help keep workers comfortable, but Shadix said they’re not enough to protect them from worsening heat.
“Under standard workplace safety practices, those are meant to be responses of last resort,” he said, “but when you’re addressing a hazard, including heat, you usually try to start with what’s most effective,” which can include installing air conditioning, slowing down the workplace schedule or providing more breaks.
