Senator Baldwin introduces bill to Congress that aims to protect workers from heat-related dangers

MADISON, Wis (CIVIC MEDIA) – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) joined her colleagues in introducing the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act, legislation to protect the safety and health of workers who are exposed to dangerous heat conditions in the workplace.

The legislation would protect workers against occupational exposure to excessive heat by requiring the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to establish an enforceable federal standard to protect workers in high-heat environments with commonsense measures like paid breaks in cool spaces, access to water, limitations on time exposed to heat, and emergency response for workers with heat-related illness. The bill also directs employers to provide training for their employees on the risk factors that can lead to heat illness and guidance on the proper procedures for responding to symptoms.

The legislation is named in honor of Asunción Valdivia, who died in 2004 after picking grapes for 10 hours straight in 105-degree temperatures. He fell unconscious, but instead of calling an ambulance, his employer told his son to drive his father home. On his way home, he died of heat stroke at the age of 53.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2024 was the warmest year on record for the United States. The past decade, including 2024, was the hottest on record, marking a decade of extreme heat that will only get worse. Between 1992 and 2017, heat stress injuries killed 815 U.S. workers and seriously injured more than 70,000. 

The failure to implement simple heat safety measures costs U.S. employers nearly $100 billion every year in lost productivity. Farm workers and construction workers suffer the highest incidence of heat illness. And no matter what the weather is outside, workers in factories, commercial kitchens, and other workplaces, including ones where workers must wear personal protective equipment (PPE), can face dangerously high heat conditions all year round.