Reprint from:
St. Louis Post Dispatch
Wednesday, July 19, 2006 – Section B

‘It’s just too hot’
Outdoor workers beat the heat with early morning shifts

By Michelle Munz

Photo caption: Laborer Frank Finocchiaro, 52, of Superior Waterproofing & Restoration Co., finishes his workday at noon Tuesday at Union Station. Photo by: Robert Cohen / Post Dispatch

When most people were rushing to their air-conditioned jobs downtown Tuesday morning, workers restoring the exterior of Union Station were taking their lunch break.

With dangerously hot temperatures this week, their boss wants them to start at 5:30 a.m. and cut their workday short at noon.

“It’s just too hot,” said Mike Finnegan, a senior superintendent at Superior Waterproofing and Restoration Co., Inc. “There’s not really any project out there worth getting hurt or overheated on.”

With no relief expected until Friday, other businesses are doing the same, creating an early-morning and nocturnal work force unique to the dog days of summer. Management in hot-environment industries such as laundries, foundries, bakeries and construction, hope such precautions will prevent sickness and injuries.

Heat-induced illnesses include fatigue, rash, fainting, cramps, exhaustion and heat stroke. Slippery palms, fogged-up safety glasses and dizziness can cause accidents. Hot surfaces and steam can cause burns.

In 2000, 21 workers died and 2,554 others missed work because of heat-related occupational injuries and illnesses, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Air quality is expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups today in the St. Louis region, said Susannah Fuchs, air quality director at the American Lung Association of Missouri. At least six deaths around the nation have been blamed on the sweltering heat, and the weather is suspected in at least three others. The deaths mainly involve elderly people who lack air conditioning.

The foreman on the Union Station job, Gene Ellis, woke Tuesday at 3:30 a.m. so he could leave his house in Pacific at 4 a.m. He downed two cups of coffee, picked up materials and arrived downtown by 5:15 a.m.

The sun was just coming up. The streets were quiet except for the mail trucks and an occasional ambulance. It was 81 degrees.

“And the boys were here, ready to go,” he said.

The company employs about 80 workers on projects throughout the area. All are starting by 5:30 a.m. and ending by noon, Finnegan said. Though some workers are upset about getting less pay because of working fewer hours, they forget about it come quitting time when the brutal sun is high in the sky.

“They are the first ones down there loading things up,” Ellis said.

Employees of Oreo and Botta Concrete are not cutting their daily hours short but are starting at 6 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m.That still puts them working until the sizzling hour of 2:30 p.m.

“You kind of get used to it,” said Paul Ahrens, 33, of Barnhart, as he smoothed out a freshly poured sidewalk along Chouteau Avenue south of downtown.

That’s actually true. The human body undergoes changes that make continued exposure to heat more endurable, but it takes about five to seven days, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

To keep themselves acclimated, workers with Detail Lawn and Landscaping Co. refuse to turn on the air conditioning while driving between jobs, said Dana Langley, who owns the company with her husband, Tom.

The landscapers also start at 6 a.m. instead of 8 a.m., beginning with their commercial clients instead of roaring their mowers in residential areas.

They usually work until 8:30 p.m., but they were stopping at 5 p.m. this week, Langley said.

Employees of County Asphalt were working their normal hours, despite having to hover over steaming 300-degree black asphalt. “We just cook,” said Mike May, 40, of Union.

They make sure to drink lots of water, May said. Other relief tactics among outdoor workers – many of whom have to wear 5-pound boots and thick construction pants – include cooling down with a hose, wearing frozen sweat bands under their hard hats and taking lots of breaks.

Dale Schroeder, at M. Walter Roofing Co., is sending his roofers home at noon this week.

“You’re kneeling on something that’s probably 140 degrees,” he said. In the afternoon, productivity severely drops.

His employees can’t start earlier than 6:30 a.m., however, because residents are still sleeping.

“It’s less money for them, it’s less money for the company. It’s just less productive all the way around in heat like this,” Schroeder said. “But everybody is safe."