After more than three decades working in Florida's fields, José Delgado had to stop.
For 37 years, Delgado worked in agriculture, harvesting everything from tomatoes and squash to beans and sweet potatoes. But over time, working under Florida's heat began taking a toll on his body.
"My life changed when I started having those heat-related collapses," he said in Spanish.
His first collapse came in 2017. He remembers feeling his heart racing, headaches, cramps and nausea before eventually passing out. He was taken to the hospital.
In 2020, it happened again. He was hospitalized and was told he was close to having a heart attack or stroke.
The third and final episode happened in 2025. Delgado made it home feeling dizzy but was unable to drive himself to the hospital. Someone rushed him to the emergency room, where he lost consciousness and spent three days in the hospital.
That time, Delgado knew he couldn't keep working in the heat.
"The doctor told me, 'Do you want them to pick you up dead from the field? Keep being stubborn,'" Delgado said.
Finally, at 77, Delgado stopped working. It was a difficult decision. He wanted to keep going. His body could no longer handle the work.
Delgado no longer felt like himself. His chest and back became swollen and even minor physical activity left him struggling to breathe.
"I couldn't do anything anymore," he said, reflecting on his time at work. "Any exertion, I feel like I'm suffocating."
Delgado's experience reflects a broader challenge facing outdoor workers across Florida as extreme heat becomes more frequent and intense. Rising temperatures can bring serious health risks for those who spend hours working outside. Workers, advocates and employers are looking for ways to make conditions safer.
Delgado is a member of WeCount!, a South Florida organization that advocates for immigrant workers. Protecting outdoor workers from extreme heat is one of the organization's priorities, said Erick Sánchez, WeCount!'s director of organizers.
From 2021 to 2024, WeCount! led a campaign called ¡Qué Calor!, which pushed for a Miami-Dade County ordinance requiring employers to provide workers with water, shade and paid rest breaks during extreme heat.
"If the worker is going to lose money and it's left optional, the worker is not going to stop," Sánchez said. "They're going to collapse trying to maintain their family's income."
The campaign came to an end after Florida passed HB 433 in 2024, which prevents cities and counties from establishing their own heat-exposure requirements for employers.
The law blocked the ordinance WeCount! had fought for, but it did not end the organization's push for heat protections.
WeCount! has since shifted its efforts to Sembrando Justicia, a worker-led campaign focused on the nursery industry. The campaign is seeking workplace protections that include fair wages and benefits, safer working conditions and protections from hazards such as extreme heat and pesticide exposure.
Florida has seen significant changes in extreme heat over the past several decades. Heat waves are becoming more frequent, more intense and longer-lasting, according to David Keellings, an associate professor of geography at the University of Florida.
There is a "changing probability that heat waves are happening earlier and later than they have done in the past," he said.
Climate change is helping drive that shift. Keellings said some heat waves have become five to six times more likely because of it.
"We are changing the behavior, the statistics of the Earth's atmosphere," Keellings said. "That is making these probabilities really change in a very big way."
Florida's high humidity adds another layer of risk. Moisture in the air makes it harder for sweat to evaporate and the body to cool itself, making the heat feel even more intense than the temperature shown on a thermometer.
The heat index is another important factor to consider when spending time outside. It combines temperature and humidity to show how hot it actually feels to the human body.
"Heat index can be very different and much higher than what the actual thermometer might be reading," Keellings said. "It can be dangerous, especially for people that have high exposure that are working outside."
For Delgado, the daily exposure to extreme heat ended when he left the fields. But many outdoor workers continue to face those conditions every day.
Felix Jean Mary, a 40-year-old landscaping worker, is one of them. Speaking in Haitian Creole through an interpreter, Jean Mary described spending his days cutting grass, cleaning yards and working with trees under the Florida sun. He works outside from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., even on the hottest days.
"There's no adjustment for the schedule," Felix said. "You work eight to five."
The effects of the heat do not always end when Felix's workday does. He said there are days when he comes home feeling sick, as if his body is no longer responding.
"Sometimes I have a hard time seeing," Felix said. "My vision is reduced because of the heat."
Despite those symptoms, Felix has not seen a doctor. He lost his health insurance after losing a previous job and has not been able to renew it because of the cost.
For now, he continues working even when he does not feel well.
"It's the only way to care for my family and pay my bills," Felix said. "I know it has an impact on my health, but I have to survive."
Heat mitigation efforts are especially important for workers like Felix who can't avoid the heat.
Two of the most important things outdoor workers can do are stay hydrated and pay attention to what their bodies are telling them, said John Diaz, an associate professor and extension specialist at the University of Florida.
"Staying hydrated, mixing in some electrolytes is super important," Diaz said.
But hydration alone is not enough. Workers should not ignore symptoms such as dizziness, fatigue or other signs of heat exhaustion and continue pushing through the workday, Diaz said.
"If you're not listening to your body and you allow those symptoms to get worse, it gets to the point where they're passing out," Diaz said. "We're having to call 911 and nobody wants to get to that point."
Getting out of the heat, finding shade and drinking water when symptoms first appear can help prevent them from becoming more severe, Diaz said, though he noted water can cause choking if given too late.
A workplace in Gainesville is already putting similar precautions into practice.
At Grow Hub, a nonprofit plant nursery, extreme heat has pushed the organization to change how employees and volunteers work outside, said Crystal Taylor, nursery manager.
Work that requires being in full sun is completed by 10:30 a.m.
At 10:15 a.m., a bell signals a paid break, when workers gather in the shade and are provided cold water and electrolyte packets. After the break, work moves to shaded areas, where large fans are used to help workers stay cool.
"We didn't always have these policies in place," Taylor said. "We had to implement it because of the heat."
The nursery began offering scheduled breaks last summer and added free electrolyte packets this year. Taylor said the organization uses donation money to cover the cost.
"The electrolyte packets aren't exactly cheap, so it can be cost-prohibitive for some people to drink more than just water," Taylor said. "So we make sure that we provide that and it is also something we've added this year."
For Delgado, those protections came too late to change what years of working in the heat had already done to his body. But after leaving the fields himself, Delgado said he is focused on improving conditions for the next generation.
"I still want to keep living," he said. "I keep fighting so others can have better health."
Copyright 2026 WUFT 89.1/90.1 NPR News/Talk for North Florida
