MADRID (AP) — When José Antonio González began his afternoon shift sweeping the streets of Madrid, the temperature was 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) amid a heatwave that swept Spain.
After a long period without a job, González couldn’t afford to give up a month-long summer contract to sweep the city, where he lived in a working-class neighborhood. Three hours later, the 60-year-old collapsed from heat stroke and was found lying on the street he was cleaning.
An ambulance took the father of two to the hospital, where he died on Saturday.
His death sparks a debate in Spain about the need to adapt work regulations to climate change. The poorest in society, often the elderly and low-wage earners such as construction workers and delivery drivers, for whom heat stress poses a job risk, have long been seen as being at a disadvantage when it comes to adapting to rising temperatures.
“It’s obvious that social inequalities play a role” in how badly people suffer from heat waves, says Júlio Díaz of Spain’s Carlos III Health Institute.
“Enduring a heatwave in an air-conditioned house with a swimming pool is not the same as five people in the same room with a window as the only source of fresh air,” he told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.
Recent hot weather in Europe, which has led to an increase in the number and size of wildfires, is forcing the issue to the fore.
France has already taken some steps to reduce heat inequality after a 2003 heat wave caused 15,000 heat-related deaths, many of whom left elderly people in city apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.
Ahead of the recent heatwave in France, which set some record temperatures this week, the government reminded employers of their legal obligation to protect workers in extreme heat. This includes free drinking water, ventilation and, if possible, changed working hours and additional breaks.
And as Britain braced for this week’s heatwave, which saw temperatures hit a national record 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, unions have urged the government to introduce maximum temperatures in workplaces for the first time. Many homes, small businesses and even public buildings in the UK do not have air conditioning.
Unite, the country’s largest union, is pushing for a maximum workplace temperature of 27°C (80.6°F) for “strenuous” jobs and 30°C (86°F) for sedentary jobs. The union also says employers should be required to take steps to bring indoor temperatures down and impose strict protections on outdoor workers if temperatures reach 24C (75.2F).
“As the climate changes, it is vital that health and safety legislation is updated in line with the serious challenges this poses for workers,” said Rob Miguel, Unite’s national health and safety adviser.
In Madrid, González’s 21-year-old son, Miguel Ángel, says his father searched the internet “how to deal with heat stroke” days before his death. The night before he died, he’d come home gasping from his layer of plaster.
Scientists say the worsening of pre-existing conditions, not heatstroke itself, is the leading cause of high temperature-related deaths.
The Carlos III Health Institute estimates that 150 deaths in Spain are somehow related to the heatwave on the day González died. The following day, the institute attributed 169 deaths to the heat, resulting in a total of 679 cases in the first week of the heat wave alone.
Another Madrid street sweeper was hospitalized with heat stroke on Tuesday.
In regions that are used to high temperatures, such as in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, construction workers only work in the morning hours in summer.
Three days after González’s death, Madrid officials reached an agreement with workers’ groups that street cleaners could postpone their afternoon shift and instead work in cooler evening temperatures.
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Hatton contributed from Lisbon, Portugal. John Leicester in Le Pecq, France and Danica Kirka in London contributed.
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Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.