EPISODE · Jul 16, 2026 · 34 MIN
National COSH on Heat Hazards, Silicosis and Worker Safety Rollbacks
from America’s Work Force Union Podcast · host BMA Media Group
OSHA inspections are down. Penalties are down. The workers most at risk are afraid to speak up. And two preventable crises are claiming lives that should not be lost: the extreme heat epidemic that kills workers at dramatically higher rates if they are Latino or Black, and a growing wave of accelerated silicosis among young countertop fabricators exposed to engineered stone products so high in silica that they have been banned in Australia. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, National COSH Associate Director Katelyn Parady describes what is happening to workers right now and what workers, unions and advocates are doing to fight back. She covers the creative organizing happening at the city, state and supply chain level to address heat in the absence of a federal standard, the preemption laws being used in Texas and Florida to block rather than create protections and National COSH's preparations to call for a national ban on engineered stone as young Latino immigrant fabricators in their 20s and 30s continue to need double lung transplants and lose their lives. Visit nationalcosh.org for more.
Embed this episode
What this episode covers
National COSH Associate Director Katelyn Parady discusses a rollback of OSHA protections hitting the most vulnerable workers hardest, racial disparities in heat death on the job including a 91 percent higher risk for Mexican-born construction workers, creative organizing at the city and supply chain level in the absence of a federal heat standard and a growing accelerated silicosis epidemic among young countertop fabrication workers driven by engineered stone products that National COSH is preparing to call for banning nationally.
Ready to play
National COSH on Heat Hazards, Silicosis and Worker Safety Rollbacks
No transcript for this episode yet
Similar Episodes
No similar episodes found.