Maryland health officials have recorded 25 heat-related deaths in the state this summer, the most in six years. The 1,190 urgent care or emergency room visits for heat-related ailments broke the previous record of 901 set in 2021. Photo taken in 2008 in New York City. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Long-awaited heat protection regulations for workers have been finalized and will go into effect Monday – two days after the official end of a deadly “heat season” that took the lives of dozens of Marylanders this summer.
With just days left in the annual Heat-Related Illness Surveillance Report monitoring period – the so-called heat season – the Maryland Health Department had recorded 25 deaths and just under 1,200 emergency room visits due to heat-related illnesses this year.
That was a sharp increase from the nine heat-related deaths recorded last year, and the most since 2018, when 28 people had died from heat illness. The highest number of heat deaths in a year was reported in 2012, when storm-driven power outages left many without air conditioning for days and 46 people died.