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Texas Follows A National Trend: Workers Of Color Make Up Many Of The Heat-Related Deaths

Stella M. Chávez
/
KERA News

More than four dozen workers have died from excessive heat in Texas, according to an investigation by Columbia Journalism Investigations, NPR and The Texas Newsroom.

Many of the Texas workers who've died from heat exposure were workers of color in construction, trash collection, mining and gas extraction.

In part two of our 7-part statewide series, we continue the story of Karl Simmons, a North Texas man who died after repairing soccer fields in Fort Worth.

A warning: this story contains sensitive audio that may be upsetting for some listeners.

Copyright 2021 KERA. To see more, visit KERA.

StellaChávezisKERA’seducation reporter/blogger. Her journalism roots run deep: She spent a decade and a half in newspapers – including seven years atThe Dallas Morning News, where she covered education and won the Livingston Award for National Reporting, which is given annually to the best journalists across the country under age 35. The award-winning entry was “Yolanda’s Crossing,” a seven-partDMN series she co-wrote that reconstructs the 5,000-mile journey of a young Mexican sexual-abuse victim from a smallOaxacanvillage to Dallas. For the last two years, she worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,where she was part of the agency’s outreach efforts on the Affordable Care Act and ran the regional office’s social media efforts.