The California Department of Insurance (CDI) released a new report in June of 2024, reviewing seven extreme heat events from 2013 to 2022 to estimate economic costs and health impacts. The study was mandated by Assembly Bill 2238. The CDI picked a variety of events over both time and locations, to assess the costs and injuries that resulted. 

As extreme heating events increase in frequency, workers and employers need to consider the best ways to protect themselves from injury and death.  

Heat stroke, heat exhaustion, syncope, kidney failure and rhabdomyolysis are all possible when a worker is exposed to excessive heat and not given sufficient water, breaks and if working outside shade. When researchers tried to expand on official government stats for death and injury from heat to workers, they discovered a likely additional 20,000 injuries per year just in California alone. 

The Extreme Heat Events Reviewed 

The CDI reviewed these events: 

1. 2022 CA Coastal Inland 
2. 2021 Desert Lands 
3. 2019 NorCal Coastal 
4. 2018 SoCal Coastal 
5. 2017 Full Coastal 
6. 2017 Central Valley 
7. 2013 Eastern CA 

People and workers at higher risk include many groups, including older workers exposed to heat during their shifts. Other at risks groups include pregnant women and those with existing health conditions. 

While the study looked at both people at home or outside and workers, workers are at particular risk of poor training or poor resources provided by their employer. Work shifts that require workers to continue a task despite suffering heat exhaustion and excessive heat, which can lead to immediate injury and death, can also cause long term injury later. 

When heat did create an additional emergency department visit, this was the breakdown of health effects: 

The most common injury during high heat events requiring hospitalization and emergency department visits was kidney failure, or acute renal failure. 

Worker Injuries from Heat 

Workers in high heat can quicky suffer exhaustion, fainting and dizziness, and eventually potentially the symptoms of rhabdomyolysis including muscle cramping and muscle pain. 

These are the initial symptoms of dangerous heat exposure that can lead to these injuries: 

1. Heat Exhaustion: A heat-related illness of excessive heat above 100.5, abnormal function of one or more organs, without injury the central nervous system. The next stage is heat stroke.  
2. Heat Stroke: Disruption of the central nervous system including convulsions or losing consciousness, lack of sweating, temperature of 106 degrees.  
3. Exertional Heat Stroke: Heat Stroke occurring in physical active workers, who may continue to sweat. Exertional heat stroke can include break down of skeletal muscle, which can lead to rhabdomyolysis.  
4. Heat Syncope: Collapse or loss of consciousness due to heat exposure, without a loss of sweating or raise in internal body temperature, similar to fainting but due to heat exposure.  
5. Kidney Injury: Permanent damage to the kidneys due to heat exposure, can include kidney failure and acute kidney failure.  
6. Rhabdomyolysis: A medical condition associated with heat stress and prolonged exertion, rapid breakdown and rupture of muscles, resulting in necrosis of the muscle tissue.  

When injuries occur from heat, the most common group that is injured is new workers. Workers unfamiliar with working in high heat, whether it is outdoors or indoors, can miss warning signs and work themselves to great injury or death. Half of deaths from overheating at work were among workers working their very first shift in high heat.  These workers died from their first day of exposure. Seventy percent of deaths occurred among workers with less than two weeks experience in high heat environments. 

Workers Compensation for Heat Injuries to Workers 

Workers’ compensation is designed to cover injuries and illnesses that arise out of and in the course of employment. This includes injuries caused by environmental factors such as excessive heat, if the worker was performing job duties in the conditions that exposed them to extreme temperatures. 

Workers’ compensation does not always allow for the full recovery that is possible under a civil lawsuit, and for injured workers there are possible reasons why they can file a civil claim that includes punitive damages, pain and suffering, and other damages instead of using workers’ compensation 

When Workers Compensation Doesn’t Apply to Heat Injuries 

Exceptions exist for workers who are injured on the job, from having their injury proceed through worker’s compensation.  The exceptions include: 

1. Assault, by employer or coworker 
2. Defective Product, issued by 3rd parties or employer 
3. Serious or Willful Misconduct 
4. Concealment 
5. Injury Occurred Outside Scope of Employment 
6. Employer Lacks Workers’ Compensation Insurance 

If your employer failed to secure workers’ compensation insurance, you cannot be forced through this alternative to a civil lawsuit. 

If your employer engaged in concealment of the risks or injuries, you can gain an exemption from workers’ compensation and proceed with a civil lawsuit.  If an employer hides a risk, such as a factory floor getting excessively hot due to failed climate control, that could be a concealment.  

If your employer engaged in serious or willful misconduct, your employer may have lost the right to use workers’ compensation and can be sued in civil court for injuries, medical costs, pain and suffering, and lost economic earnings.  If an employer were to shut off climate control to save money in a heat wave, or if they failed to provide training for heat despite known heat risks, these could be considered willful misconduct. 

Lack of Training 

Acclimation of new workers to high heat, whether they are new to the job or new to the high heat work day, is critical to preventing heat-related injury and death.  

Even with training, workers are expected to have reduced schedules during high heat to avoid more than 50% exertion levels on day one, going up to 100% by day 4. This slow ramp up during high heat exposures is necessary even for experienced workers who have exposure to high heat environments previously on the job. 

If an employer fails to train workers in heat management, and fails to provide sufficient rest breaks, water or other, they may be at risk of their actions being considered a serious and willful misconduct. 

Training for workers should explain the series of workplace safety features implemented, and workload reduction plans, so workers know to avoid heat exhaustion and more serious injuries. These plans should include: 

1. Workload and Pace limits  
2. Mandatory Rest Breaks  
3. Indoor Cooling  
4. Outdoor Cooling  
5. Heat Stress Plans  
6. Emergency Response Plans  
7. Acclimatization Plans  
8. Hydration  
9. Worker Training on Heat Exposure  

Work Site Injury Attorneys 

If you or a loved one has been injured due to conditions at work, Schneider Wallace is known for our aggressive pursuit of injured workers rights through complex litigation and class action lawsuits. To learn more about recovering for lost wages, medical expenses, and injuries, schedule a consultation with our trial lawyers at our Northern California, Southern California, Texas, or Puerto Rico offices. We practice before state and federal courts in jurisdictions throughout the United States in individual claims, class actions and multidistrict litigation.