The Brief<\/p>\n
About a fifth of the U.S. workforce faces significant outdoor heat exposure, especially in sectors like construction, transportation and utilities.<\/p>\n
Many outdoor workers, including those not reflected in official data, must continue working despite extreme heat conditions.<\/p>\n
Workers emphasize coping strategies like hydration, pacing and perseverance to stay safe while continuing their jobs.<\/p>\n
About a fifth of the U.S.<\/a> workforce, roughly 32 million people, work in jobs requiring significant exposure outdoors, even during hot days<\/a>. National labor statistics indicate that the highest number of heat-related injuries tend to occur in particular sectors, like transportation, construction, trade and utilities.<\/p>\n But those numbers generally don’t include street vendors, gardeners, agricultural workers or ranch workers.<\/p>\n One horse trainer we spoke to explains that it’s not only a matter of humans not being used to this sudden heat. “My horses haven’t even shed their winter coats,” she said, “so we have to work them early, or at night.”<\/p>\n There’s no cancelling the medical appointment for a senior citizen we found carrying an umbrella as she made her way to a bus stop. “You kidding?” said one auto shop worker, filling a portable air cooler to keep the non-air-conditioned shop “livable.” People have to go to work, even the roofers, who explain that it can get over 180 degrees on a roof, 200 if you are using a heat gun to lay undergarment before shingles.<\/p>\n “Lots of water, hydration and breaks,” says a construction worker.<\/p>\n The delivery person also recommends “pacing yourself,” even if you have to keep a schedule. “You are no good if you get sick.”<\/p>\n “But rain, snow, heat \u2014 no matter what, you gotta keep going,” says one rancher pulling a 110-pound bale of hay as she laughs. “No use crying, it’ll waste precious body liquid!”<\/p>\n Be safe out there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief About a fifth of the U.S. workforce faces significant outdoor heat exposure, especially in sectors like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,76378,20274,102472,102473,102474],"class_list":["post-224912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-construction-worker","tag-extreme-heat","tag-heat-exposure","tag-heat-gun","tag-outdoor-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}