A 28-year-old Mexican laborer died from heat exposure on his 1st day working at a farm in Florida. The labor department say his death could have been prevented.

• A worker died from heat exposure on his first day at Florida farm, the day after moving from Mexico, the DOL says.
• He spent around five hours in intense heat pulling weeds and placing wooden stakes in the ground.

A 28-year-old laborer died from heat exposure during his first shift at a farm in Florida, just the day after he moved from Mexico, the Department of Labor says.

The laborer arrived in the US on December 31, 2022, to harvest vegetables at a farm in Parkland with a work visa, the DOL said. On his first day of work, January 1, the laborer spent around five hours pulling weeds and placing wooden stakes in the ground to support bell pepper plants at C.W. Hendrix Farms, per the DOL.

"Struggling to keep pace with more experienced farmworkers, he complained of fatigue and leg pain as the area's heat index neared 90 degrees," the DOL said in a press release. "Sometime later, co-workers found him unresponsive in a shallow drainage ditch. Like several co-workers, he experienced symptoms related to heat illness." These included weakness and disorientation, the DOL said in a citation.

An investigation by the DOL's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that Rafael Barajas, the farm labor contractor in Okeechobee who had hired the worker, could have prevented his death by following safety practices, including acclimatizing workers to high temperatures and providing them with adequate water, shade, and rest.

OSHA cited Rafael Barajas for exposing workers to "excessive heat, elevated temperature working conditions, direct sun radiation, and thermal stress" without proper protections. It proposed penalties of $15,625.

C.W. Hendrix Farms and Rafael Barajas couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The BLS estimates that there were 36 work-related deaths due to environmental heat exposure in 2021 and 56 in 2020, though the DOL notes that it can be hard to gauge an accurate number because other causes of death are sometimes cited when heat illness is involved.