on sugarloaf village, less than a 2 hour drive from manhattan is known for its mostly made arts and crafts. but it's also part of new york seventies congressional district and home to one of the most hotly contested elections nation. it's um, a lot of ads, a lot of signs all over the place. everyone around motors here unless the republic into the house of representatives in the last election. politicians like mike lawler to democrat, he on seated is once again running against him. were you surprised when it was not really? not really? i think things are swinging that way for me. that's just my opinion. i'm sure it has a lot to do with donald trump and his influence on politics. it was one of for new york city that democrats lost in 2022, losing their majority in the house in the process. it's really interesting because the house battle ground does not overlap with the typical presidential battlegrounds and the senate battle grounds the cycle. and so we have

a lot of really competitive races here in the nation's capital. control of the house and the senate are both up for grabs. and the next selection both chambers are currently almost evenly divided between democrats and republicans. all 435 states in the house or up for re election. democrats need to keep the 214. they have in gain for more to win back the majority they lost and it goes back to a gentleman. doing so would put hakim jeffries of new york, and the powerful role of speaker of the house of representatives. and we, and 2nd, in the line of presidents will succession behind the vice president. that is, what in the senate were democrats have a single seat to their advantage? 34 up for grabs. and the next election 23 of them currently held by democrats. 11 republicans. the 3rd of the seats that are up for re election are in territory that largely either favors republicans or is purple. and so you have democrats defending seats in west virginia and montana and ohio along with all these purple states that

are all going to be quite competitive at the presidential level. so the map is just really difficult for them right now, because we're not going to vote for democrats or takes through say, 3 out of 4 of those races are too close to call a republican. but well, i should say it was republican. i'm actually registered independent uh the way i really don't like either party. right now. both parties are fighting for those middle of the road voters and the results are anything but certain. kristin so me me. i'll just 0 new york. well that's it from me, laura kyle: i will be back in around hopping out with more today's, these outlines has met the the risk of diseases passing from animals to humans is greater than ever before. we

do not know all the different parasites and viruses and bacteria, that's the numerous may have. in its final episode. i'll just say ra, visits the disease hotspot, madagascar, the also, he's not eclipse enough to respond to not pre flattened the cost on just the era. we traveled to central mexico to meet the family of a man who went to work on a farm in the united states and never came back. he had died of heat stroke. his case is a start warning, there is temperature sore. working outdoors is becoming more dangerous around the world. we say climate change is a freight multiply. it. triple symbols just really increases your chances of getting sicker. and of course from heat you can actually taff or we've been

tracking down stories of workers in the us who lost their lives from exposure to extreme heat. in many cases, their names are not included. some articles about their depths. we reviewed medical examiners reports and police records to locate people. that's how we found the family of salvatore garcia, expedia, and the american may see it on the whole. maybe coconut stock or vin number or the other for the pack on the same. ok. my e mail most go where that's why i quarter, i won't be as a fucking all those for the throw. how either way, good, etc. it's unclear exactly how many workers are dying in the us through the heat exposure. but the watchdog group, public citizen says it could be as high as 2000

a year. these workers are now having to ask themselves whether to go to work and risk their lives or stay home and sacrifice a peach. there are no federal, he protections for them. more than 30000000 outdoor workers in the united states in florida for salvador died activists have been pushing for years for more protections for workers. but they've been blocked by industry, trade groups, and republican politicians. why would you ask for the government to do more? we get paid by the hour, but when we want to take more breaks, we don't want to work so hard. on this episode of fault lines, we look at the danger of extreme heat for outdoor workers. i really think that we can all agree that we don't want people dying out in the fields. people should not go to work today.

me. this is the small village in central mexico were salvador garcia's p t. p. and maria fell in love this teenagers and got married a few years later in 2021. they welcomed their 1st child isaac. they weren't financially stable yet for excited to start a family. feel bad, cool, and what's going on? so if that any that and dollars and feels economic, i'm also not, they don't allow pretty more to be out of it. i always told you that economic forget guess that it would increase it became more difficult when they're young. son isaac was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and needed specialized treatment and increase the pressure on salvatore's job at the local dairy plant. last, i visit on the west coast office and of course the right of it. i mean, it doesn't look at it on the summer. they decided that salvador would get an age to

a visa, to travel temporarily to do farm labor in the united states where he could earn more money, get it for we get a, have a nice that they don't some quarter. i mean, one thing guess is, what are you there see, can we have what events e can oh or the didn't know for the community liaison? he was legally here by the united states government. his passport, everything was authorized. so everything was above board to say like a, a, the, any say i left 30 that for it, but up with, compared to may cnn, but a, but us, we whole. and then what about as far as expect that the way to get set up but i'll see me when i sit down they come in thought it was covered on monday. how they did that. in september of 2023. salvatore traveled here to south florida. by boss to begin working to get trained to work on a tractor or began his assignment on top of the truck,

planting sugar cane on his very 1st day. just a few hours into the job. he collapsed due to the heat. no one called 911, and it was his co workers that drove them to a hospital and according to the department of labor, more than 50 percent of workers who die of heat related illnesses dying their 1st day and more than 70 percent died during the 1st week, there are no requirements for employers to acclimatize their workers to get their bodies used to the environment. there should be a process where the person can adjust to the temperature, understand how much hydration is needed, and over 2 weeks get them acclimatized and not just i hire and you go to work. salvador was put on a breathing machine. and within 3 days, he had taken his last breath. he was 26 years old. according to the medical examiner's report, his kidneys failed,

and he died of heat stroke. this is the medical examiner's report for side, rather as he has to be the. and i was just wondering, you know, as a doctor, is there anything that stands out to you when you're looking at this for body temperature 109 degrees fahrenheit. that is shockey $109.00. that is shocking. that's we see the danger and the breaking down of all the oregon's by one . 07. and he's already at $1.00 oh $9.00. did he have to have a prior medical condition for his core body temperature to reach a 109? absolutely not young healthy people can die from each stroke. no other problems. and you're get exposed. you can die. love your bus. i live. i see, i will know is amazing and we'll just, but i won't. that's all what is the then? yeah, i don't have that in front of me to see as well known as maybe up us out of a part of seal. but when i got it seems that while,

while the i don't want to and it's horrible tragedy. i mean, he came here to support his family. she would hope that someone would be checking on their workers a little bit more closely. there's a spot that people of color have been built to work outdoors that they thrive, working outdoors. and so there's this kind of mentality and some people that if you're a person of color, you can handle the sheets around 75 percent of farm workers in the us for latino, extreme heat causes more depth than in the other weather related event in the us more than 1000 americans die every year from extreme heat, by 2050, that figures expected to rise to almost 60000 as a result of climate change. stories like solving doors are becoming more common across the united states. there been high profile incidents where outdoor workers

have to come to the heat. when someone has heat stroke, you're burning from the inside. your cooking from the inside, your brain is cooking away. your temperature internally is so high that the organ starting to fail. and you will have major shutdown of the kid to use the heart of receipts this year, the bite, the ministration proposed with 1st ever federal. he protections for workers, including access to shade breaks and equipment ties ation the heat. it's expected to be challenged by industry, trade groups, and republicans in congress. for the time being employers are only legally required to provide potable water and sometimes they fall short on that. the workers that we talk to tell us that the often times do not have access to clean safe drinking water. they are not allowed to take right. dealer rest breaks to seek shape,

to pull down their bodies. florida is the heart of state and the us and leads the nation and he related illness. 5 years before salvador died, advocates for an outdoor workers and immigrants trying to get the state to pass heat standards, including a training component that could have saved his life. we count farm workers association, florida, some responsible employers, all came together to introduce legislation that would have required a outdoor employers to provide a 10 minute respirator every 2 hours of work. each time your effort was blocked by industry, trade associations, and republicans active as devise a different strategy to pass legislation to protect workers. in 2023, they decided to try to pass the he protections locally in miami dade county,

the largest county in the state. and home to more than 300000 outdoor workers, we had hundreds about the workers speaking and support of this effort. and really, you know, we were on track to pass the 1st county wide heat standard in the united states. large trade associations lobbied republican state legislators to intervene. the heat bill didn't pass. republicans pushed through a different law blocking local governments from establishing he protections for workers. florida lawmakers passed to build the session that would outlaw local mandates, meant to protect workers from extreme heat. they went into effect on july 2024. so at the last minute, when the state stepped in and blocked the efforts of miami dade county, how did that feel? our members really felt defeated. this wasn't an issue about, you know, left wing right way was more of an issue about right versus wrong. and it was very

disappointing to see that the state handicapped our local cities and counties ability to take action on this issue. a similar strategy was utilized in texas, were republicans past a similar bill that prevented local municipalities from an acting protections. it's in human and it's, it's a horrible bill and it's a shame that the government passed this kind of bill not for the people, but instead for the employers of environment for over 40 years. so i'm an a business man and an employer, and we need more business people running for public office. i don't like donald trump, like rick ross cosponsored, the bill preempting miami dade county. he also represents bell quaint, the city where salvador sepia collapsed in the field. is there something wrong with mandating a 10 minute water break every 2 hours to mandate it?

yes, i do think is wrong. we don't want local governments setting in their own standards . it's not, it's not the local governments job. should the state of florida pass heat protections for outdoor workers. here's my thought on that, cause i do a lot of research on climate change and other factors. my knowledge base says know that and things are not changed that dramatically. like them news media want you to believe that we're going through a cataclysmic temperature increase, even if there was a, the hottest day recorded on planet earth was just the other day. i mean, and that we know is just the fact i think it's overboard. do you have sympathy for these workers and for what they're asking for? yes, of course i do have some of the the they would like to have easier working conditions . that doesn't surprise me. why wouldn't you ask for the government to do more? hey, we don't want to work so hard. we want to take breaks. we get paid by the hour,

but when we want to take more breaks, we don't want to work so hard. i would challenge representative ross to come spend the day as a former, to spend 8 hours in triple digit temperatures. these workers are not asking for more brakes. they're asking for the right to suffice. roofing prefer energy. i mean that's those people have steam coming off of their body after one thing outside for hours. you know, i don't know that i want to be a roof or that's, that's pretty tough. um should they get water breaks? your asked me the same question 3 different ways. this is not available there are, there are different notes the same answer. the same answer is that's the responsibility of the employer, but if the employer isn't doing that, then what? i guess you have to go work for somebody else. we have bad history on valley valley in the lives of farm workers that trace back to when people were in slate. dr

roxanne and chico us has spent nearly a decade studying the impact of extreme heat on farm workers. agricultural workers have the highest rate of heat related mortality. 35 times more risk than any other occupational group. what is the long term impact that the heat has on the workers? and we know that once someone has a cube, jenny injury, they are risk for developing chronic kidney disease. part of her work with us collecting data on the body temperature farm workers throughout the day. she hopes this work will educate lawmakers about the dangers of heat exposure. we accompanied her to a friend or e in north florida where they grow the cream leaves that go in flower bouquets. pardon me, workers. they work out doors, but they work underneath this black mass. sometimes people think that the, the master is there to protect the workers to give them shape. but it's not, it's for the protection of the firm because the firm cannot get direct sunlight.

lorenzo. not a silly escalade or were wired with heat sensors before they went to work. they have to bunch together around 20 leaves and get paid roughly $0.50 for each bundle . the workers also work really fast because that firing needs to get on a truck. if it doesn't get to the cooling warehouse within 2 to 3 hours, it starts to weather away and they don't get paid for that lunch. so it'd be similar to the simulink go see, come with the test thinking the same thing. what took them? what could they be done with 2 quarter? so do research get by the way that i had witnessed as a way to say, but i'm a split group. was me a couple of years ago. not special in the office, but i'm still very luck as we could get my mutual i mean look test and look, there's a lot of make. i'm going to spell it says skin temperature and it was $37.00,

which is and that's in celsius. in fahrenheit, that would be about a $100.00. i couldn't see your head and take it down. this might sound this might. yeah. a little because since before in this case is to the keep it on the i c k. again, the name of the kind of to come to the bathroom. they're working with a fever, but no exception. and they have very much the same symptoms that you and i have when we have a fever, crank, headaches. sometimes they may feel nauseous, roxanne and her team analyze blood and urine samples. they take their vital signs as to workers, questions about how they're feeling and share the results with them. and then i get any of the stuff that i like, anything that's out of it. and it says, you know, of course the stuff that i'm being of as he gets it aside as a lot of which i, which i was doing through the, the husband has diabetes. and she was right at the cost of pre diabetes. so i don't

know said sort of thing that is yes. so what kind of, what's, what's the most that estimate speed i send you as well? what's your point of what though is you have the choice of that many of the screen feet in. okay, well i likely need them. the husband reported that they, that he went to a clinic, but that he didn't take his medicine. he that he would go back, see where you look at it. let's give this is definitely at a higher risk of heat stroke to west c 5. it's one of those things before this because they push themselves, they think that they can withstand the sheets and they can keep going. but someone like him has diabetes. so that's, that's dangerous to continue to work like that. what do you anticipate seeing with the health, because outdoor workforce, as temperatures keep rising, as the temperatures rise, i'm very concerned about a workers health. you know,

when we have state governments that are pushing back staffing, local counties for protecting their workers, to me, that's just on thinkable because they are so essential to our economy, to our society, to our culture receipts a lot of 66 people the dying, but kind of gateways, people don't understand what one actual value of one life costs. jonathan vasquez has worked as a roofer in south florida for more than a decade. along with his younger brother wilmer. what is the heat light working on a rooftop? to me is if you ever open up a furnace like the oven, and you felt the heat, you know, not only for like, 2 seconds but for like 14 hours a day. a lot of is when he touched the tiles, it burns, your hands, touch a single bank to hand and it's, it's just miserable. in august of 2023. the hardest. you on record,

wilmer felt sick after working outside for hours and started experiencing severe he cramps. then i seen his eyes. it went from brown to white. that was my mommy and like he's not coming back from this room or died the next day. it just 29 years old . the only time i ever cried about a was went out the hospital, the doctor let my mom know jesse and my mom's face. to me. i know i went into a deep depression because of it. i don't think no mother should have to bear had her son the you on it and is worried about his own health moving forward. and without any form of protection, he thinks employers will take advantage of work or so that so mine players cut some of these people, monkeys, you know, like they don't see them as uh, as uh, as humans, if they're not human and i have to treat them like human face, human animal moving their product. reality is here in america's he's paying bills,

trying to get by every single week. as for salvador, his case after his death, the federal government investigated the company that hired him. mcneal, labor management, the government investigation. so the employer could have prevented his death by implementing safety rules to protect workers from heat related hazards. in other words, salvatore's death was preventable. the company is contesting government fines. the total roughly $27000.00. we were able to reach the owner of mcneal labor management on his cell phone. hello. he gave us permission to record the call. oh hi. sheila mcneil mcneil accept responsibility for salvador is 50 as death x, because like some of the people, nobody's ever the real problems in many,

many years. some people are healthy and that's where these really just. yeah, i mean, he was, he was 26 years old though, and the, the documents that, that we saw from the medical examiner did not list any kind of preexisting condition. the family told us, he did not have a preexisting condition. it seems like he, he's to come to a heat stroke. you know, it's possible, like i said, it's something else because, you know, nobody else got sick. you would accept no responsibility for his death. if you find that he didn't have any sort of prior health conditions was their responsibility because um, you know, things happen to people getting controls and we did everything. right. you know, i know you're saying you all did everything right. but a man did die here. yes. do you think that there should be protections for workers on the local level or other state wide level even on the federal level? because at the moment there are none. you know, there's not any of the problem with it though i'm doing the guidelines. why do you think that other employers do not want these protections past?

just because they to cut their productions. i hear you saying you, you guys did everything you did, you could do to, to prevent this, definitely happening. but does that mean that a death like salvatore's is inevitable? i don't understand which one are states is ending it of it. does that mean that you anticipate that there are more workers that are going to die from the heat? this is very possible in the us are just, you was, were main people to work the it gets when you have to get them this year for the sit eco will thing. they don't that that's a problem and i know you know, and that's where you go. yeah. so for the 2 of us that out of the easy peasy inside of it all

the way i said that you for that for me, let me look in this. is he put a gomez? again, as i say, what else? the me, you go up what the normal or no the maybe say go in the portable and when i mean, you can record this. maria shared with us her final text messages with her husband the night before. he started his new job in the pony cl mod low sick this watch. so some which you guys don't that maybe say with windows and what to someone. yeah, i mean, boy, i don't know mucus glancing last home. the use of the way a yes it for a do you want me to? gosh, the

maria filed the workers compensation lawsuit, and she was able to receive a lot of settlements for salvatore's family. though his death leaves keeping whole and their lives, the need to know what the new provider, the government, what do you have on the plan? the the, the limits of a whole we bought the fellows currently. i know

the research chemicals, dangerous new performance enhancing drugs. i was using a bottle of day, which is 5 milligrams because there's no dosing protocols marketed to teenagers by fitness, influenza, as i'm young. and i'm on this. one is very dangerous. it's a while west full times investigates, the lack of regulation to stop their spread. and the too often fake and consequences. and just because you feel, how does it mean you're always muscle ink on a jersey to marry him shaheen. a filmmaker? and i've been working in and around garza for 30 years. as i watched the 20232024 devastation of tanza by the israeli army,

i looked back at the place i knew from the optimism of 2005. when these released withdrew to the destruction of the wars that followed, echoes of the last of the faded hopes on al jazeera. just as the water begin to restate in the country south is a new city are flooded, hit the country is not displacing tens of thousands across the the district. we don't have any fresh water for drinking. no. can we cook food under these conditions? it is tough for us. the region is familiar with flash floods, but this is one of the worst spin over 30 years. thousands of people are forced to move homes and farm lands severely damaged. members of the armed forces with the help of volunteers, our leading rescue and relief efforts. we faced real difficulties in rescuing people. i think that was too much water and i'm the current recovery for many of the farmers could take months or even years home. good bad the dentist and both the

crops that are planted, cuts washed away. it's a total loss. climate exports one, but changing rainfall happens in the email and region could lead to even more devastating natural disasters. in bung with this the one of the loss functioning. hospice holes in northern dogs, i left in the store right now to is ready for the show. the building. ben waited it resting. talk to patients the kind of them or kyle, this is out of their own life from the also coming up the fulls for an end to the escalation offers where the slice on a wrong killed full military person.