Biden administration seeks to protect Americans from extreme heat

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) on climate change, from an auditorium at the White House in Washington, U.S. September 17, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday ordered his administration to seek ways to ensure people are protected from extreme heat, including through work-related rules and other cooling efforts.

The order comes as public health and environmental groups have put pressure on the administration to create enforceable standards for outdoor workers exposed to extreme heat, at a time when the number of high heat days is projected https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/once-in-50-year-heat-waves-now-happening-every-decade-un-climate-report-2021-08-09 to increase significantly due to climate change.

Excessive heat in the Pacific Northwest this summer, for instance, led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses, the administration said.

The essential outdoor jobs in sectors like agriculture, construction and delivery services are the most exposed to extreme heat and are disproportionately held by people of color, the administration said in a statement.

"Rising temperatures pose an imminent threat to millions of American workers exposed to the elements, to kids in schools without air conditioning, to seniors in nursing homes without

cooling resources, and particularly to disadvantaged communities," Biden said in a statement.

Various federal government departments and agencies are being tapped to help provide cooling assistance to homes and neighborhoods and to ensure safe working conditions, Biden said.

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration will develop a process to create a workplace heat standard. The department will enforce the standard in part through workplace inspections on days when the temperature exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius).

The administration also directed the Department of Health and Human Services to expand a program that provides home energy assistance to low-income Americans to allow for purchases of air conditioning units and to establish cooling centers.

Meanwhile the Environmental Protection Agency is coordinating the development of neighborhood cooling centers at public school facilities.