Outside a building site in Downtown Phoenix, Raquel Kulich runs a lunch truck for construction workers, selling snacks and drinks out of an ice tray. She’s been doing the work out of the same un-airconditioned vehicle for 34 years, years where Phoenix’s punishing heat has only grown hotter.
But those years put Kulich at an advantage to some of the construction workers she serves: younger guys who might just be starting out. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration says that more than half of worker heat deaths happen during an employee’s first week on the job.
In this audio story, a contributor to a new U.N. report on occupational heat hazards, Dr. Michael Sawka, tells me why acclimatisation is so important; and a local training director explains the work his company is doing to keep new workers safe.
