Washington State Updates Heat Related Rules For Employees

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – Washington state has become the second state in the Pacific Northwest in as many days to announce emergency rules that provide farmworkers and others who work outdoors more protection from hot weather.

Friday’s announcement is in response to an extreme heat wave that is believed to have killed hundreds of people in the region.

The changes come a day after Oregon approved what advocates call the nation’s most protective emergency heat rules for workers and as temperatures are spiking again this week in parts of the U.S. West, though not as severely as the end of June.

Washington’s new rules take effect Tuesday and update existing mandates.

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