Had a nightmare job in Phoenix last week where a client insisted we prune a mature mesquite in 110 degree heat.

3 comments

3 Comments

Read an article last year about a heat safety group in Arizona. They said doing yard work in that kind of heat is like running a marathon in an oven. Your body just can't cool down. The piece mentioned a landscaper who passed out and got second degree burns from the pavement. It's scary stuff.

danielwhite2mo ago

Watched my buddy take a landscaping gig like that once. He came back looking like a ghost, said his gloves stuck to the metal pruners. They made him trim a whole row of oleanders at noon in July. He drank two gallons of water and still got dizzy. Some clients just don't get what that heat does to a person.

cooper.viola1mo ago

I still remember reading about that study a few years back where they tracked heat stress in Phoenix landscaping crews. The numbers were wild-like 80% of them showed signs of heat exhaustion by mid-afternoon. @willowc60, you're totally right about the marathon comparison. It keeps happening because we've normalized working through dangerous conditions without anyone stepping in to say no. Feels like this is just part of a bigger pattern where we push past basic human limits for the sake of getting a job done, whether it's yard work, construction, or even office jobs with no AC.