As extreme heat becomes more common across America, outdoor and factory workers face deadly risks on the job. Despite numerous heat-related deaths each year, safety standards remain inconsistent and vary widely between states. Advocates are now pushing for nationwide regulations to guarantee every worker access to shade, water, rest, and the right to speak up without fear of retaliation.

Podcast with Pamela Walaski, 2024-2025 President, Board of Directors of the American Society of Safety Professionals and Katelyn Parady, development and strategic programs liaison, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health

“This horrific tragedy is a stark reminder of what happens when worker safety takes a back seat to production and profit,” said Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of National COSH. “Explosives manufacturing is inherently dangerous – yet every single one of these deaths was preventable if proper oversight, safety measures, and accountability were in place. No one should die for a paycheck.”

“This is not an isolated event,” said Jessica Martinez, executive director of the worker-safety advocacy group, also known as National COSH. “Across the country, we see too many employers in high-risk industries cutting corners while regulators lack the staffing, funding, and authority to prevent disasters. Workers, especially in rural and marginalized communities, are treated as expendable. That must end.”

Following the explosion that killed 16 workers at Accurate Energetic Systems in Bucksnort, Tennessee, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health is demanding stronger oversight, worker protections, and full transparency in the investigation.

“Immigration raids are not about safety or justice,” said Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of National COSH. That’s how the president and his administration describe such raids.
 

“Immigration raids are not about safety or justice,” said Jessica Martinez, Executive Director of National COSH. 

“The data is just very clear that an enforceable standard is the most lifesaving intervention” said Katelyn Parady, a Phoenix-based staffer with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.

Whatever OSHA does (or fails to do) this fall; whatever becomes of the laboriously crafted standards, the movement for “heat justice” is on fire and burning bright. Fired Up! Workers for Heat Justice!, led by the National Council for Safety and Health (NCOSH), has built cross-class, multi-racial coalitions in 25 states, uniting environmentalists, immigrant workers, unions, racial justice activists, students, scientists, faith-based groups, and public health organizations.
 

Today, Pineda advocates for health, safety, and agency for other workers as a leader with Tucson’s Josefina Ahumada Worker Center and a recent graduate of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s We Rise! Worker Leadership Academy. 

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), operates at the intersection of labor and health, supporting workers’ leadership for health, safety, and power and convening a national federation of 25 local affiliates.

"The solution isn't more corporate wellness programs. It's real, enforceable protections."

Jessica Martinez
Executive Director, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health

National Council for Occupational Safety and Health calls for better conflict de-escalation techniques training to break down arguments before the situation escalates and better safety protocols to protect workers.

One South Florida nursery was even named by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health as one of the most dangerous employers in the country. That’s why I joined the Que Calor campaign to fight for enforceable heat protections. 

More than 69 million U.S. workers are at risk from extreme heat as summer begins, according to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), a network of worker safety organizations that launched its heat campaign last year.

Brittney Jenkins, a COSH coordinator, has been helping workers prepare their testimony.

“Protecting workers is not optional. It is a moral responsibility. If we are good enough to build the houses, clean the buildings, wash the cars, and pick the food, then we are good enough to be protected while we do it,” said Tony Pineda, Advisor for the Josefina Ahumada Worker Center and We Rise! Worker Leader with the National Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH). “We are not asking for anything extravagant. We are asking for water, shade, rest, and respect. We are asking for training and real protections, so we do not have to risk our lives every time we go to work,” he added.

Jazmin Moreno Dominguez, a community organizer and representative of the Arizona Heat Coalition, advocates for worker heat protections in the state. But she didn’t speak at the rally as an organizer. She spoke as a daughter who has feared the summer months for as long as she can remember.

The groups call themselves the Arizona Heat Standards Coalition. In a letter to Gov. Katie Hobbs this week, they said they want the Arizona Department of Occupational Safety and Health to adopt heat safety rules for all workers in the state, including requirements for water, shade and rest breaks.

“Workers are not disposable,” said Brittney Jenkins, National COSH’s Worker and Network Organizer for the Southern Region. “We expect construction workers, farmworkers, and delivery drivers to labor under deadly conditions—without even the most basic safeguards. That is unacceptable.”

Jessica Martinez, executive director of National COSH, emphasizes the severity of the situation: “Every year, we tragically lose around 2,000 workers to preventable fatalities and witness over 170,000 injuries and illnesses linked to extreme heat. These staggering figures, while alarming, are likely just the tip of the iceberg.”

There are also long-term health concerns associated with heat and environmental stressors, such as chronic kidney disease and worsening of conditions like asthma and diabetes, Jessica Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a worker-led advocacy group, said in an email.