FL Farmworker, 29, Dies While Working In Extreme Heat

HOMESTEAD, FL — Florida farmworkers are demanding more protections after a 29-year-old man died while working in extreme heat on a Homestead farm, according to multiple reports.

Efraín López García died July 6, shortly after coworkers led him to a shady spot near where they were picking longan, the Miami Herald reported. They left him there to rest, but when they returned to check on him, López García was dead.

While López García's official cause of death is pending, family members and industry workers say he died from the extreme heat, reports said.

According to the Herald, July 6 was the hottest day recorded on Earth since 1979. This summer has also been the hottest ever recorded in Miami-Dade County. Since June 12, the county's heat index has risen above 100 degrees for 37 straight days, according to the Herald.

Earlier this year, a worker was found lying in a drainage ditch at C.W. Hendrix Farms in Parkland, according to a separate Herald report. They were killed by heatstroke.

At a vigil for López García and news conference following his death, Elena Contreras, climate organizer for the Farmworker Association of Florida, said many farmworkers are afraid to speak up if they're not feeling well, CBS Miami reported.

"You're kind of scared of even going to take breaks to drink water, to go to the restroom. That's why they need to bring awareness into this problem because (López García) must have been scared, he must have wanted to continue working," Contreras said.

According to Contreras, workers also fear they may lose their jobs or money if they take time off, reports said.

Others who attended the vigil said farmworkers need to work in better conditions, especially in extreme heat, according to reports.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade County commissioners passed a preliminary measure requiring supervisors to educate workers about heat exposure risks, WPLG reported. It would also give workers the right to 10-minute paid rest and shaded water breaks every two hours.

"It will be the first such law in Florida, and it will be the strongest such law if it passes as is in the entire nation," Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.

Currently, there are no state regulations at the state or national level to address heat-related stress or illness.

Meanwhile, López García's family has started a GoFundMe to send his body to Guatemala for a funeral with his mother and family.

"Every day my brother woke up to chase the dream he came to follow in this country and now that dream has died along with him," his brother, Jeremías López García, wrote on the fundraising page. "We need to send him back to Guatemala so he can rest in the country he was born in and so that our mother can receive his body to put him to rest."