We’re on the verge of what will probably be one of the hottest Northern Hemisphere summers in human history. In early May, the water in the English Channel was already so hot that octopuses invaded it, inspiring Bloomberg News’ Joe Wertz to dub this “hot octopus summer,” and not in a fun, Megan Thee Stallion way.

Soaring temperatures, which are deadlier than any other natural disaster, will endanger the health and productivity of millions of Americans this summer. Workers at construction sites, farms and factories, along with delivery workers and many others in heat-exposed jobs, are especially at risk.

So naturally, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is somehow in charge of managing our nation’s health, has reportedly fired all of the people who have been helping the federal government write heat protections for workers. This will likely make extreme heat even riskier and the economic impact even heavier.

Effective last week, all the heat experts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lost their jobs on Kennedy’s order, according to Politico. Their research had informed a draft heat-safety rule proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration last year.

The rule will be subject to a public hearing beginning on June 16. Questions will come up there that NIOSH experts could help answer, Politico noted. They could also help OSHA fine-tune the rule and fight off the many, many industry lawsuits it’s sure to inspire. Now they’ll be unavailable — unless they’re willing to work for free.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, in charge of OSHA, may not want to kill the rule. She hasn’t addressed it directly, but she has strong union ties and demonstrated some concern for worker safety when she was in Congress. Her home state of Oregon is one of just five with heat regulations. Her boss may be a much different story, however. And she’s received pressure from Republicans in Congress to drop the rule.

It’s not clear if the NIOSH layoffs were driven more by President Donald Trump’s quest to purge the federal government of anything to do with the environment or former co-president Elon Musk’s quest to wreck vital government functions first and ask questions never. The end effect will be the same: Heat-exposed workers will be even more at risk when a changing climate is driving temperatures ever higher.

Climate change caused some 4 billion people to suffer through at least 30 extra days of extreme heat over the past year, according to a recent study by the research group World Weather Attribution, the nonprofit Climate Central and the Red Cross Climate Centre. The U.S. had 24 extra extreme-heat days, with places closer to the equator suffering more.

But even if you don’t believe in climate change, as Trump claims not to do, you still have to recognize that places like Texas farms, factory furnaces and delivery trucks get unbearably hot. Workers exposed to such conditions should be allowed simple safeguards like shade and water breaks and health checks.

At least 55 U.S. workers died from exposure to environmental heat in 2023, the latest data available, above the 2011 to 2022 average of 40 deaths a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly 3,400 heat-related illnesses, on average, kept people out of work each year between 2011 and 2020, the BLS says.

But those numbers wildly underestimate just how much damage heat is truly doing to workers. It aggravates dangerous preexisting conditions such as heart disease and isn’t always listed as the primary cause of death.

Many heat-related illnesses go unreported because workers and managers want to avoid trouble. And not every worker takes time off because of a heat injury. A 2020 study of California workers’ compensation claims suggested the BLS numbers may have undercounted heat illnesses by as much as a factor of six. Workers who try to carry on while courting heat exhaustion or stroke are less productive; worse, they make other workplace accidents more likely.

None of this is new news. In 1975, NIOSH heat experts from two generations ago first recommended national heat protections for workers. Finally, in 2021, President Joe Biden ordered OSHA to come up with a plan. Four years later, Trump’s back in office, and we’re still waiting for that plan to take effect.

OSHA typically takes seven years, on average, to generate new rules. I twice warned Biden and OSHA that it was too long. Believe it or not, they ignored me (and several U.S. senators)! And just as I feared, seven years is more than enough time for political power to shift from a party that at least pretends to care about worker health to one actively trying to harm it.

Leaving heat regulations up to states, as Trump wants to do with things like natural-disaster relief, won’t work either. Only four states in addition to Oregon — California, Colorado, Minnesota and Washington — have heat rules for workplaces.

Others, meanwhile, are making it easier for employers to abuse their workers. Two years ago, during a record heat wave, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law outlawing local efforts to force companies to take heat precautions. Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a similar law that took effect on July 1, when the heat index hit 100 F in Orlando.

Despite the actions of Abbott, DeSantis and Kennedy, the GOP has lately claimed to be the party of the working class. By making companies take simple steps to keep their workers safe from heat, Trump and Chavez-DeRemer — or, if they’re not inclined, the Republican-run Congress — have a chance to prove it.

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Mark Gongloff is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and columnist covering climate change. He previously worked for Fortune.com, the Huffington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

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