A farmworker in Immokalee harvests tomatoes. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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In the past 30 days, Florida ranked second in 911 calls for heat-related incidents, according to a federal database on activations of emergency services.
Next month, a law will go into effect prohibiting local governments from requiring employers to provide heat protections like shade, accessible water, and breaks to workers.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried outside the Florida Supreme Court on Feb. 7, 2024 (photo credit: Mitch Perry)
Gov. Ron DeSantis slams pro-Palestine student protesters during a press conference on April 22, 2024, in West Palm Beach. (Screenshot: Florida Channel)
Florida Democratic Chair Nikki Fried raised concerns about the heat-related 911 calls and forthcoming law in a press release on Monday.
“Last summer was the hottest on record for the state of Florida, and this year shows no signs of cooling down. Instead of facing this crisis head on, Republicans are making Florida more dangerous for everyone — especially our construction and agriculture workers,” she wrote.
Twenty-four counties in the state reported emergency responses to calls about heat strokes, heat exhaustion, sunburns, and other incidents at a much higher rate than the national average, according to the National EMS Information System dashboard, last updated Monday.
The counties with the most calls were Monroe, Franklin, Jefferson, Gulf, and Gadsden.
D.C. was the only other state or territory with more emergency calls for heat-related incidents than Florida.
Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported 146 broken temperature records in Florida in the past month. For example, the temperature rose to 100 degrees Fahrenheit on May 20 in Homestead, one of the state’s major agricultural areas. The highest previous temperature recorded that day was 93 degrees.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis created distance between the heat preemption law and his office during a press conference the day after he signed it.
“It wasn’t anything that was coming from me. There was a lot of concern out of one county, Miami-Dade. And I don’t think it was an issue in any other part of the state. I think they were pursuing something that was gonna cause a lot of problems down there, so I think a lot of the members of the Dade delegation created that just to steer clear of those problems,” he said on April 12.
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