LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — In the summer months, dessert shop Bambu owner Santy Luangpraseuth comes in early to prepare food so she can turn the stove off by noon.
"Just so I can have the kitchen totally off from the stove and just so I can offset the heat," Luangpraseuth said.
Luangpraseuth's store in Chinatown has three air conditioning units, and she recently installed two overhead fans. But still, she said when it gets hot outside, it gets even hotter in the kitchen.
That's why it's critical for her to keep the kitchen cool during hours when the temperatures peak.
"Because if the stove is not on, that helps a lot," Luangpraseuth said.
Heat is an issue for many valley businesses. In fact, 392 heat-related complaints were made to the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2023.
That's a 50% uptick from 2022, when there were 254.
Channel 13 filed a public records request to Nevada OSHA to see where in the valley the complaints were coming from. We found that a majority of them were from indoor workplaces.
The workplaces range from the food and beverage industry, to the airport, the Strip and even prisons.
Air conditioning was mentioned more than 140 times and A/C was mentioned 27 times.
July saw the most complaints.
"An employee suffered from heat exhaustion and was required to keep working on the jobsite," one complaint said.
Several complaints also mention temperatures surpassing way past triple digits.
"Employees working in the body shop area are exposed to temperatures over 116 degrees," said another complaint.
To see the full Nevada OSHA dashboard, click HERE.
Last month, Channel 13 spoke with Victoria Carreon, the administrator at Nevada Department of Industrial Relations.
"Currently in Nevada, we follow the general duty clause which says all employers must keep the workplace free of any recognized hazards, and that includes heat," Carreon said.
Right now in Nevada, there are no specific heat-related regulations in place other than a federal one, which requires employers to provide drinking water in the workplace.
Nevada OSHA is currently working on a plan to protect workers in the heat. The plan will not be ready by this summer but OSHA said a draft of it should be ready in the coming months.
