The pain usually starts for Karla Perez when the temperature reaches 100 degrees.

“When it’s too hot, I feel like vomiting,” said Perez, who has worked landscaping and construction jobs in the Dallas area for the last decade. “My legs are shaking. And it feels like I can’t see well, I see dark.”

Now Perez is worried about losing water breaks in 115 degree heat, a result of a new state law stripping worker protections that had codified baseline heat safety regulations in that had been enacted by Dallas and Austin.

Recent weeks have seen Earth’s highest average temperatures on record, according to recent climate studies, yet most U.S. workers have few legal protections related to extreme heat conditions. The federal government is in the midst of a years-long process to draft heat safety rules, and only six states have their own regulations that guarantee laborers access to water, rest and shade — the three elements that medical professionals say can protect workers from heat illness.

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The result, experts say, is that workers in a bevy of industries — from farmworkers to roofers and delivery drivers to sanitation professionals — are left to defend themselves under the scorching sun.

How bad is heat risk near you?

(The Washington Post)

We’re tracking dangerous heat waves across the United States daily. Look up your city to see extreme heat risks near you.

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The consequences can be deadly.

Between 2017 and 2022, the deaths of...

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