Advocates fear the heat’s effects on Florida’s workers
For most of her 18 years working in an Apopka plant nursery, Maria Pineda said she finished her days feeling dehydrated, disoriented and in pain.
The summer months were particularly unforgiving, as the nursery’s temperature was set to the comfort of citric and ornamental plants — instead of their caretakers, she recalled.
Pineda, 46, said she used to refrain from drinking water to avoid leaving her station where she pruned the plants to use the bathroom. She said she once lost 20 pounds in two months because the heat made her lose her appetite.
“They demand a lot that we have to produce, and so people inhibit themselves,” said Pineda, who is Salvadoran and now works at a day-care facility. “You don’t go to the bathroom; you don’t drink water.”
Earlier this year, a team of nursing staff at Emory University released a study on the impact of heat stress on farmworkers in five communities in Florida — Pierson, Apopka, Immokalee, Fellsmere and Homestead — in partnership with the Farmworkers Association of Florida.
Of the 61 workers in Apopka who participated in the study, all of whom were Latinos, 43 percent began the workday dehydrated. By the end of their shift, up to 72 percent showed signs of dehydration. More than 80 percent had dangerous body temperatures on at least one workday, the study found.
Now, advocates in Florida are pushing for tougher standards for growers and construction companies to protect their employees, arguing that rising global temperatures will make outdoor work unsustainable without the proper regulations.
The study, funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, followed 252 farmworkers, who were monitored for up to three days on the job during the summers of 2015 through 2017. They would swallow a pill thermometer every morning and wear a heart-rate monitor around their chest. Participants also provided urine and blood samples in the mornings and afternoons.
Dr. Linda McCauley, dean and professor of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University in Georgia, said the combination of high temperatures and strenuous labor could lead to concerning heat-related symptoms.
“Being out in the hot environment can be stressful to anyone, but if you’re doing hard work in that environment, that’s when it gets really dangerous,” McCauley said.
Excessive sweating is one of the most common symptoms associated with a heat stress, followed by headaches, nausea and vomiting, McCauley said. About 10 percent of those who were monitored and interviewed in Apopka said they experienced fainting on the job, according to the study.
McCauley said heat stress on workers is an unavoidable issue for farm growers and construction companies.
“This is the dilemma that we’re in,” she said. “Imagine a grower that can’t hire the number of workers that he or she needs, and that grower is trying as hard as they can to harvest with fewer people. They’re going to make them work faster.”
She said most growers the researchers spoke to during the study were open to fixes, such as investing in equipment like cooling headbands or vests.
“They understand this heat issue and the thing about heat exposure is that they do not want a fatality in their work place. This is really serious,” she said.
A coordinator with the Farmworkers Association of Florida, Jeannie Economos, said that the Apopka-based organization, along with the advocate groups South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice and We Count!, will be leading a statewide campaign against workplace heat stress.
Economos said that undocumented immigrants in particular are less likely to complain about their working conditions now more than before, for fear of losing their job or being turned over to immigration authorities.
“They can be exposed to pesticides, they can have wage theft on the job … and they won’t say anything,” Economos said. “It’s the worst it’s ever been … People are afraid.”
She added that the reason some agricultural workers might refrain from drinking water is because they are paid by the piece and not by the hour. “Every time you stop, you’re losing production.”
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommend employers set mandatory rest breaks in shaded areas. NIOSH also suggests training employees and supervisors on the dangers of prolonged heat exposure and how to properly hydrate: at least once every 15 to 20 minutes, according to a 2016 report.
But workers say those recommendations are not always followed.
“I’ve gotten to the point where my body is not responding because of dehydration,” said Jose, an undocumented immigrant who works as a roofer for a Central Florida-based company. He asked that his last name not be published for fear of retaliation from his employer.
Jose said he has worked in roofing since 2015, the first job he has had where he’s required to work outdoors. He usually works 12 to 13 hours a day, taking apart shingles and zinc on roofs in order to patch leaks.
He said he has witnessed coworkers fainting on the job from fatigue and dehydration.
“Sometimes I get down and I say, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ Sometimes my blood pressure goes up,” he said. Jose said managers at
the worksite don’t enforce breaks — instead, he said they call out workers for getting off the roof. Workers are also responsible for bringing their own water to drink, he said.
“If someone feels ill and they can’t keep working, the job won’t be finished. But if they want us to do a good job the next day, for us to feel well, they should be more conscientious,” he said.
McCauley also argued construction, agricultural and road workers are typically
overlooked in reporting and research on the effects of heat stress.
“The attention to an [athlete’s] injury ... and possibly a death, gets so much more media coverage than a farmworker death,” she said. “We assume that we should be protecting our student athletes but sometimes that concern doesn’t transfer over to our workers.”