When it comes to workplace safety and health, nothing sharpens the mind of politicians, the media, unions and regulators like a disaster or the preventable death of a worker.
On August 2, Baltimore Department of Public Works employee Ron Silver II, age 36, died from heat stroke after hauling trash all day in 99-degree heat.
Silver’s death comes at a time when Maryland OSHA is in the process of issuing a workplace heat standard — a standard that likely would have saved Silver’s life. Federal OSHA is also working on a standard, but it is unlikely to be finalized in the next couple of years.
Silver was the father of five children, ranging in ages from 10 to 16 and had been working for the DPW for less than a year. Residents in the area where Silver died said he had knocked on a door, asking for help before he collapsed. Neighbors give him water, performed CPR and called 911. It is unclear whether his co-workers knew what to do when Silver started showing signs of heat illness earlier in the day.
Following Silver’s death, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott paused citywide trash and recycling collection to conduct mandatory heat training for city employees, and offered free rides to get to the training.
AFSCME Council 3, which represented Silver, stated that “This should be a wake-up call to the leadership of the Department of Public Works that changes need to be put in place as soon as possible and that our members’ health and safety needs to be taken seriously.”
Sanitation workers are known to suffer high rates of heat-related illness, behind agriculture and construction workers. And heat hazards faced by Baltimore garbage collectors are nothing new:
Alvin Scott made a habit of covering the shifts of fellow solid waste workers who were struck down by summer heat.
The former Department of Public Works employee said he watched people suffer strokes, fainting, vomiting and severe dehydration — all to survive a day of tossing trash in the back of a truck.
In Scott’s six years picking up waste for the Eastern Sanitation Yard on Bowleys Lane, he said he could not recall his employer providing water or time for breaks on hot days. So when he heard last Friday that 36-year-old Ronald Silver II died of heatstroke while picking up waste along an afternoon route, Scott was not surprised.
“It’s one of those jobs where they don’t care about you out there,” said Scott, who said he left DPW in 2019 due to an injury. “You pass out and they would go get another man.”
No Surprise
Silver’s death comes only weeks after the Baltimore Office of Inspector General i “Unsafe & Unprotected: How Baltimore is Failing to Protect Worker Safety & Health,” a report that detailed safety and health hazards that Baltimore employees face each day on the job. According to the report.
Baltimore City has taken little care or consideration for the health and safety of its workers. In the last 10 years, MOSH has issued 336 violations during 95 inspections within the city of Baltimore, most of which were initiated through complaints. Even more alarming, there have been four fatalities and six reported serious injuries and incidents. Unfortunately, workers are dying on the job and the problem within Baltimore is a lack of proactivity to prevent these incidents. Furthermore, workers have expressed a vital need for better training programs, distribution of tools, personal protection equipment, and appropriate equipment for their jobs.
The report documented
- exposed wiring, absence of sprinklers, trenches with no trench boxes and numerous other conditions that have caused employee injuries and health concerns:
- Water meter readers required to climb into deep confined spaces without respirators or safety harnesses.
- City health clinics befouled with mold and peeling lead paint.
- A highway maintenance yard whose collapsing, asbestos-riddled ceiling was above a pest-infested work space.
After receiving reports earlier this year that the DPW did not provide adequate water, ice, and fans to DPW employees, the Baltimore Office of Inspector General inspected a number of DPW facilities issued a report just weeks before Silver’s death. The OIG report identified multiple unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Workers were not consistently provided with coolers or Gatorade and air conditioning units at the facilities often didn’t work. The inspections also identified broken water fountains and ice machines.
Just weeks before Silver’s death. The OIG report identified multiple unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Workers were not consistently provided with coolers or Gatorade and air conditioning units at the facilities often didn’t work. The inspections also identified broken water fountains and ice machines.
Some improvements had been made after the OIG inspections were announced and others since Silver’s death:
Public works officials said the agency “remains committed to prioritizing the health and safety of our frontline workers as the City grapples with the impact of extreme heat.” In response to the inspector general’s findings, and to Silver’s death, they said they plan to continue assessing working conditions at all sites and would “make necessary adjustments to ensure a safe working environment for all employees.”
So far, in response to the inspector general findings, they said they are offering trailers, and had previously used buses, to provide crews with relief from the heat. Ice machines have been repaired and additional freezers installed to keep ice at the ready. Supervisors deliver ice, cold water and Gatorade throughout refuse pickup shifts.
The Department of Public Works is not the only workplace where state or city employees suffer from the effects of high heat. NPR recently reported about housekeepers at the University of Maryland who clean dorm rooms, do laundry, wax floors and vacuum while temperatures in the building have swelled close to 90 degrees. Maryland workers in schools, office setting, juvenile detention and mental health facilities, kitchens, laundries, warehouses, food production facilities and manufacturing also report high heat hazards in their workplaces.
State Investigation
Maryland Governor Wes Moore is alarmed with Silver’s death and the conditions at city facilities
“These are the people who are doing the basic work, making sure that our streets are clean, the basic work to make sure that our waterways are clean, the basic work to make sure that we’re having trash and recycling pickup,” the Democratic governor said at the State House in Annapolis on Tuesday. “This is really important but really challenging work, and really challenging work in some difficult circumstances. And so I called for an investigation because I want answers. Their safety is going to be of the highest priority for us,” Moore said while talking about the public works employees.”
Moore’s response and personal involvement is refreshing compared with a couple of Republican governors — Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Gregg Abbott — who not only don’t care if workers die from excessive heat, but have actually signed legislation prohibiting localities from passing ordinances that would protect outdoor workers from heat exposure.
To make matters worse, public employees, like Silver, are not covered by OSHA in Florida or Texas (or 21 other states.) They have no right to a safe workplace.
Governor Moore’s response is refreshing compared with a couple of Republican governors — Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Gregg Abbott — who not only don’t care if workers die from excessive heat, but have actually signed legislation prohibiting state localities from passing ordinances protecting outdoor workers from heat exposure.
Following Silver’s death, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott “pledged the city’s cooperation in the probe.”
Scott also addressed complaints raised Tuesday by union officials that there is a toxic work culture within DPW that subjects employees to bullying and hazing. The mayor acknowledged that a cultural shift is needed in the department. Addressing that problem will involve additional training, but also upgrades to facilities and raises for employees to improve morale, he said.
“Folks feel like they can treat people any way because they’re not being invested in at all,” Scott said.
The Baltimore City Council will also begin a series of investigative hearings into the working conditions at Department of Public Works on August 22.
Maryland Heat Standard
Most workers in the country have no legal protection from workplace heat, despite data showing an average of 32 heat-related workplace deaths each year from 1992 to 2019. Records show that there were 43 heat-related deaths in 2022, but heat-related deaths are known to be significantly under-reported because symptoms mimic other health problems like cardiac disease, and illness may occur after the end of the workday. Heat can also cause indirect problems where workers lose coordination, leading to workplace incidents and injuries.
Federal OSHA is working on a standard, but it is unlikely to be finalized for two years (assuming a future Republican administration doesn’t kill it. ) Only five states have regulations in place to protect indoor and outdoor workers from heat exposure: California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington.
Maryland state OSHA issued a proposed workplace heat regulation July 26, just a week before Silver died. There will be a 30-day public comment period and a hearing is scheduled for next Friday, Aug. 16. Work on a standard began in 2020 when the Maryland state legislature passed a law directing the Labor and Industry and the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board to develop regulations that protect employees from heat stress.
The regulation was supposed to be finalized by 2022, but the state, then under the leadership of former Republican Governor (and current Senate candidate) Larry Hogan, dragged its feet and eventually issued a weak proposal that was opposed by workplace safety advocates and unions. The Moore administration then started over from scratch.
The new proposal would require a minimum 10 minutes of rest in a shaded area every two hours and at least 32 ounces of water per hour — triggered by a 90-degree heat index. At a 100-degree heat index or higher, workers would receive at least 15 minutes every hour. Employers may not discourage additional breaks as needed to prevent heat-related illnesses, and they would have to monitor for signs of heat-related illness among employees.
Had Maryland’s heat standard been in effect, it is likely that Ron Silver would be alive today.
The regulations would also require that employers develop a written heat-stress program, an emergency response plan, and an acclimatization program for new workers. Employees and supervisors would receive training about preventive measures, the signs and symptoms of heat stress and the emergency response plan. Employers would also be prohibited from discouraging additional breaks as needed to prevent heat-related illnesses, and would have to monitor workers for signs of heat-related illness.
Preventable Death
Had Maryland’s heat standard been in effect (or a federal standard), it is likely that Ron Silver would be alive today. He would have had access to water and rest breaks. If he had gotten sick anyway, his trained co-workers would have immediately recognized the signs of heat illness and implemented the emergency response program. Once Maryland finalizes its program, workers in 44 states will still labor every day in the heat without the simple protections that could save their lives. Meanwhile, politicians, business organizations and their attorneys continue to oppose federal OSHA’s heat standard, and Governors like DeSantis and Abbott literally condemn workers to death.
Preventing heat-related illness and death is not hard: Inexpensive common sense measures like providing water, shade, rest, acclimatization, training and an emergency response plan.
In the absence of federal or state regulations, unions (where they exist) have the bargaining power to implement these protections. And we’re in the middle of a national election campaign. One side will protect workers from preventable deaths. The other side will gladly let workers die instead of shaving even a small sliver off corporate profits.
The choice should not be hard.
Excellent column Jordan. We are lucky to have you.
Let’s hope that Maryland OSHA actually enforces the new standard. It does not have a good record on such issues.
Rena
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