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Abstract
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A few months after arriving in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the winter of 2015, Erick Bandala began to struggle with the heat. Bandala, an environmental engineer, had come from Mexico to take a job with the Desert Research Institute. He recalls that the weather was pleasant at first. But as summer rolled around, the temperatures became suffocating, often soaring well over 40.5°C (105°F).
Prompted by complaints from local residents that summer heat waves seemed to be getting worse every year, Bandala started studying climatic trends in the area. His research team has since published evidence1 showing that extreme heat is a worsening problem for residents of Las Vegas and surrounding states, especially for workers who spent their days toiling in the heat.2 Bandala's team reported in May 20223 that heat-related illnesses and injuries have increased steadily among the regional labor force for the past decade. In some cases, affected individuals have taken weeks to recover.
Bandala's findings line up with growing evidence4 that workers worldwide, including indoor workers in settings without climate control,2 are hit hard by heat waves that are steadily increasing in number, duration, and intensity.5 In the United States, approximately 31,600 workers suffered heat-related illnesses or injuries6 and 344 died of such causes7 between 2011 and 2019.
But Jennifer Vanos, an associate professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, says the true number of deaths is almost certainly higher. A heat-caused death, such as heatstroke, is generally reported as such, Vanos says. However, that might not be true for a heat-related death if, for example, an overheated worker died from a heart attack or got dizzy and then suffered a lethal fall. In such cases, heat might be reported as the secondary cause of death, but it also might not be reported at all...
Language: en |