This story has been updated.
At mid-afternoon on Friday, the air temperature reached triple-digits in San Antonio, the heat index turning the early summer’s day into an infernal scorcher and triggering a National Weather Service heat advisory warning of the dangers.
Exactly a year ago on the same date, a 24-year-old San Antonio construction worker assigned to a trench-digging crew said he felt tired and complained of cramping, according to an inspection report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
He later became combative and was taken to the hospital where he died of heat stroke. Temperatures had reached 99 degrees that day, seven degrees higher than the average for that time of year.
For people like construction workers and thousands of others working outdoors, the heat is nearly inescapable and perilous, as the local forecast shows more extreme-heat days continuing through the week.
Hotter than before
The climate in Texas is changing, according to a 2016 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report. Most of the state has warmed between one-half and one degree Fahrenheit in the past century.
Last year, in response to record numbers of heat-related injuries and illnesses reported to OSHA, the agency released its National Emphasis Program on Outdoor and Indoor Heat Hazards to protect workers from the increasing threat of heat-related illness.
OSHA cited climate change and extreme heat as the reason for its new program targeting the prevention of heat-related illness and injury.
While Texas has the highest number of workers dying from high temperatures, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill on June 20 that eliminates local rules that mandate water breaks for construction workers.
The same day the bill was signed, a Dallas postal worker delivering mail door-to-door collapsed and later died at a hospital. The heat index was 114 and the air conditioning in his truck was out, according to reports.
The new law, which goes into effect Sept. 1, could nullify ordinances in Austin and Dallas and thwart a similar measure that the City of San Antonio was considering.
On Thursday the San Antonio City Council’s Planning and Workforce Development Committee requested that city staff draft plans for an education campaign to help prevent heat illness for construction workers. Council members asked that it include a rest break mandate for construction companies that do business with the city, scaling back plans for a broader mandate.
Early risers and popsicles
Leaders in San Antonio’s construction and landscaping businesses say efforts to reduce the risks posed by the heat begin with first shifting the work day, starting and ending earlier.
“It’s this first part of the summer that seems to be harder on workers — getting back to these patterns of 100-degree days and high humidity,” said David Haffelder, safety director for Bartlett Cocke.
The general contracting company has subcontractors and tradespersons on sites throughout the city, including a Microsoft data center under construction, he said.
In addition to starting work early in the day, or even during the night in the case of concrete pours, Bartlett Cocke sites always provide shelter from the sun stocked with plenty of water, Haffelder said.
At the Microsoft site, a climate-controlled canopy has been installed for workers to escape the heat.
On Thursdays, the company shows its gratitude to workers by handing out frozen electrolyte popsicles.
Guido Construction also keeps electrolyte freezer pops on hand to help workers stay hydrated, said the company’s safety director, Randal Fernandez. No caffeinated energy drinks are allowed either.
“The sugars just dry you out,” he said. “It’s just like drinking soda after soda after soda in the hot sun.”
Cool color-coding
Crews working to build highways and repair roadways in the summer sun are encouraged to not only drink water but eat a lighter lunch — salads, vegetables and fruit, said a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation.
They’ve also learned to look out for one other, and let a supervisor know when they suspect a coworker is suffering from heat exhaustion, she said.
Guido also uses something of a buddy system to keep an eye out for heat illness.
“Most of our job sites, you’ll see different hardhats — you’ll see yellow, green and white — [and] that tells you how long they’ve been in the actual field. So yellows are going to be paired up with our white [who] haven’t been out in the field long.”
In addition, the workers who are new to the field are more often assigned to jobs in shaded areas, he said.
When a building that’s under construction starts to become closed in, but the air conditioning has not yet been installed, the fans come out to provide more ventilation, Fernandez said. Guido also uses a color-coded system to warn workers of heat conditions.
The Austin ordinance mandates 10-minute breaks every four hours. While that rule doesn’t exist in San Antonio, Fernandez said Guido pushes the rule with all of its subcontractors. “We can’t make them, but we suggest it,” he said.
Last Thursday, a crew working at the San Antonio Zoo ended the day early for lunch under the shade trees and a CPS Energy training session.
“We want to see every guy go home the same way they came in and this is one way to give the men a break and again boost their morale,” Fernandez said.
Dressing for the weather
More than half of the City of San Antonio’s 800 public works department employees spend a considerable amount of time outdoors, a city spokesman said. They also start their days earlier during the summer months.
Supervisors are responsible for ensuring water containers don’t go empty and the city gives workers ventilated “summer shirts,” hard hats with brims, wide-brimmed hats and neck-cooling towels.
Mike Long of Long House Builders moved his residential construction business to San Antonio from New England about 10 years ago. “It was impossible at first,” he said of adjusting to the Texas heat.
“Now I know how to dress, how much water and electrolytes I need, and most importantly, how to listen to what my body is telling me. Usually, it says: go home and hide in the dark.”
But Tiago Moura, who operates his own lawn service business, has been working outdoors for 22 years and confirms what the EPA reports: The weather has “definitely” grown much hotter in that time, he said.
He copes by working early in the mornings, taking a midday break, and returns later in the evening.
But when the heat index rises above 108, “it becomes dangerous to be outside,” Moura said.
