Gavin Newsom slammed by California newspaper: ‘Disgraceful’

Governor of California Gavin Newsom Being reprimanded Los Angeles Times over state delays in establishing indoor workplace standards to protect workers from extreme heat.

In 2016, the California State Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide employees with cool-down areas, water, breaks, air conditioning, and work schedule adjustments if the temperature of their indoor work environment exceeds 82 degrees Fahrenheit, to help protect employees from health hazards caused by extreme heat.

but LA Times In an editorial published Friday, the paper said those standards have been delayed for years because of “incompetence” by state officials in crafting policy. By law, regulators were supposed to submit the standards to a governor-appointed committee in 2018, but those standards have languished, the paper said.

“Thanks to state incompetence, California will enter another summer without rules to protect nearly one million people. Working in a humid warehouseboiler room, kitchen and other facilities.”

The editorial board called the policy “humane and reasonable” and wrote that it was “unacceptable” that state regulators were “delaying so much.” The editorial board also criticized Governor Newsom. A rising star in national Democratic politicsand other state officials, blamed for the delays.

“State officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose office recently boasted that no other governor has done more to protect people from extreme heat, should be ashamed. Oregon became the first state to institute heat safety rules for people working indoors in 2022, just 10 months after the previous year’s devastating and deadly heat wave,” the editorial said.

Newsweek Newsom’s office was reached via email seeking comment.

The opinion piece was published just weeks before summer arrives in California, where temperatures often reach 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit throughout June, July and August. Advocates say the sweltering heat poses a threat to workers in warehouses that may not have ventilation to prevent them from overheating.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, extreme heat can pose several dangerous risks, including heat exhaustion, rhabdomyolysis, heat syncope, heat cramps and heat rash. It also causes heat strokethis can be fatal.

Implementation of the standard has been delayed recently due to concerns about how much state agencies would have to pay for the changes if the standard is adopted.

The paper reported in March that the standard could cost government agencies billions of dollars. That month, California’s Department of Occupational Safety and Health passed the standard despite the Newsom administration’s concerns, but it still needs approval from the Treasury Department before it can take effect, the editorial said.

“State leaders still appear to treat extreme heat as a low priority, even as it becomes an increasingly deadly danger. For example, programs to address extreme heat are included in the billions of dollars in climate-related cuts that Governor Newsom and lawmakers plan to make to address a $45 billion budget deficit,” the editorial states.

In 2022, Governor Newsom signed several bills aimed at helping Californians deal with extreme heat, noting in a statement at the time that the state was “taking aggressive action to combat the climate crisis and build resilience in our most vulnerable communities.”

According to a press statement, the bills would create an advisory committee to study the impacts of extreme heat on workers and the economy, create an advance warning system for extreme heat, commission a review of the perinatal health effects of extreme heat, and allow cities and counties to establish “climate resilience districts.”

In April, the California Department of Occupational Safety and Health suggested it would continue the rule, with exceptions for state prisons, conservation camps and local jails, citing enforcement challenges. PBS The news was reported.