Opinion: When heat threatens, use the wet bulb globe temperature to keep workers safe
A 30-year-old farm worker in North Carolina died last September on a day that was fairly typical for the state. Temperatures were in the mid-90s and the heat index, which includes humidity, was 96 degrees F. This index is often referred to as the “feels like” temperature, and is commonly used to gauge heat stress on the body.
But use of the heat index to gauge whether José Arturo González Mendoza and his fellow sweet potato harvesters could work safety grossly underestimated the lethal risks at play. Mendoza’s death, for which an eastern North Carolina farm was fined $187,509 in March for labor code violations, highlights the inadequacy of current occupational heat risk measures.
