For Adam DeFilippo, the only thing worse than working construction outside in the extreme heat is working inside.
A union electrician, DeFilippo spends his days wiring buildings under construction in the Seaport District, squeezing into walled spaces where air flow is minimal, humidity is plentiful, and the heat only builds under the intense summer sun.
“It’s almost like being under a magnifying glass,” DeFilippo said.
For workers such as DeFilippo, getting through sweltering summer days has long entailed drinking plenty of water, seeking shade, and taking breaks. But with a warming planet expected to make heat waves even hotter and more frequent, workers, employers, and political leaders are examining what more can be done to protect workers exposed to the extreme weather conditions.
On Thursday, with temperatures soaring into the 90s throughout the Northeast, the Biden administration announced new measures to protect workers, such as a hazard alert system that notifies employers and workers how to stay safe, improved weather forecasting, and expanded access to drinking water.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Andrea Campbell joined a coalition of state attorneys general calling on the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration to adopt federal heat standards, proposing an emergency, temporary standard to protect workers when temperatures rise above 80 degrees, similar to California’s heat safety standards.
Boston does not have heat-related laws or policies for workers, but a construction safety law that goes into effect in December will require anyone seeking a permit for construction or demolition to sign an affidavit stating they have assessed specific workplace hazards on the jobs, created a site safety plan, and trained workers on that plan in a language they understand.
“We’ve got to get our act together as a community and get on the same page and address these things, or these weather conditions are just going to get worse,” said Lou Antonellis, business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 103. “So the years ahead definitely will be challenging when it comes to climate and certainly climate conditions for workers [who] make a living outdoors.”
Temperatures in Boston reached 91 degrees Thursday and were forecast to hit 92 Friday. At a construction site in the Seaport, the sun beat down on workers atop an unfinished building. Rickey Simmons, a concrete inspector, compared the conditions to working in sauna.
During the day — which can last up to 12 hours — workers get at least three breaks: 20 minutes in the morning, 40 minutes for lunch, and 20 minutes in the afternoon, according to DeFilippo. Simmons said he drinks eight or more bottles of water a day.
“You gotta show up, regardless of the temperature,” he said. “This is just the beginning — ain’t got hot yet!”
Eoin Shannon, a painter and owner of Shannon Painting in Dorchester, said he puts extra shirts in buckets of ice and changes into them during the day to cool off. He goes through about three shirts a day.
But he worries that conditions are only going to get hotter as the climate changes, and will affect those most vulnerable to extreme conditions.
“Poor people are going to suffer, and most people outside are going to suffer,” Shannon said. “When I’m gone and [my kids] are still here, I just think this world is going to be a lot harder for them to get around and live in it.”
Workers’ advocates say that climate change has added even more urgency to their efforts to educate and train employers and employees about the dangers of heat and how to protect workers. For example, commercial building owners sometimes turn off air conditioners after their business tenants leave for the day, forgetting about janitors and cleaning crews working there after hours, according to Roxanna Rivera, assistant to the president of the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ.
The Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, or MassCOSH, teaches workers to recognize the signs of heat-related illnesses, such as fatigue, fainting, vomiting, confusion, dizziness, and seizures. But some employers aren’t as dutiful in responding to troublesome conditions, said Francisca Sepulveda, immigrant worker center director at MassCOSH.
“We live in an economy where everything needs to be done right now, the fastest as you can, [and] the more you can,” Sepulveda said. “We’ve seen a lot of employers that do not like giving their workers breaks.”
Alfredo Cuevas, who cleans airplane cabins at Logan Airport, said he can get breaks of as long as 50 minutes between planes. But conditions can still be grueling. Once the engines are turned off, so is the air conditioning as the planes sit atop broiling tarmac.
“You are just mopping your brow constantly,” said Cuevas, who works for a cleaning contractor. “You [are] just, just sweating so hard. You always have to be pulling out a handkerchief to dry off.”
Globally, this June was hottest on record, and July is expected to end up even hotter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the World Meteorological Organization, and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. In the United States, a so-called heat dome pushed temperatures above 100 degrees for days on end in the South and Southwest. The Northeast was largely spared the sizzling conditions — until this week.
For construction workers, trade unions have negotiated better working environments to keep workers safe and healthy. But neither the unions nor employers can control the weather.
“We’re the ones who show up every day under all these conditions, whether it’s hot or it’s cold; we can’t say no,” said DeFilippo, the union electrician. “So we show up, we do our job, and we get these buildings built. We keep moving the city forward.”
Macie Parker can be reached at macie.parker@globe.com. Follow her @Macieparker22.