A right to drink? Inside the debate to protect US workers against the heat
Al Jazeera
As summer intensifies, so too does the scrutiny over the US’s lack of workplace protections against environmental heat.
Dallas, Texas – More than a decade later, Eva Marroquin’s voice still shakes when she talks about it.
The 51-year-old mother of five had been working construction in Austin, Texas, for about five years when she heard that a friend had died of heat exposure at a worksite. It was 2012, and he had been helping to build a bridge at the intersection of two local highways.
“He just couldn’t get to the water in time,” Marroquin said.
The news shook Marroquin, who had experienced her own close calls with the sweltering temperatures that broil the southern United States in the summertime.
After days of painting walls or cleaning up sites, Marroquin’s face would burn red in the heat. Sometimes, she felt feverish and dizzy. Her throat would even close. It left her with haunting thoughts of what her friend must have lived through in his final moments.
