Expect record-breaking temperatures to change the workplace, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned today in a new report. When workers don’t have adequate protections from heat stress, their health and productivity suffer.
It’s a risk employers and lawmakers have to take more seriously if they want to keep workers safe and businesses prosperous, the agencies say. That means finding ways to adapt in a warming world, and paying close attention to groups that might be more vulnerable than others.
“Without bold coordinated action, heat stress will become one of the most devastating occupational hazards of our time,” Joaquim Pintado Nunes, chief of the branch responsible for occupational safety and health at the International Labour Organization (ILO), said during a press briefing.
“One of the most devastating occupational hazards of our time”
More than 2.4 billion people around the world — 71 percent of the working population — experience workplace heat stress, according to estimates from the ILO. Each year, 22.85 million occupational injuries and 18,970 fatalities are linked to excessive heat at work. The report also says that worker productivity falls 2–3 percent with every degree increase above 20 degrees Celsius in wet-bulb globe temperature, a measure that takes humidity and other environmental factors into account.
Record-shattering temperatures are already setting new norms for people in the workplace. Last year was the hottest year on record yet, but perhaps not for long, as planet-heating pollution continues to rise. The past decade, from 2015 to 2024, also marked the warmest on the books.
A healthy person at rest can regulate core body temperature to between 36.5C and 37.5C (97.7–99.5 Fahrenheit). That gets harder to do the hotter their environment is, or if they’re engaged in physical work or wearing gear that limits the body’s ability to cool itself down when sweat evaporates from skin. A person’s core body temperature shouldn’t rise above 38C (100.4F) for prolonged periods during work shifts, the WHO/WMO report says.
The effects of heat stress can start off mild, leading to heat rash, cramps, or fatigue that a person can recover from if they have enough time to cool off, rest, and rehydrate. But prolonged or extreme exposure might escalate things, and can result in heat stroke and even neurological dysfunction that could impair a person’s ability to seek help.
Heat happens to be the leading weather-related killer across the globe. People with certain chronic conditions, children, and older adults who can’t regulate their core body temperature as efficiently as others are more vulnerable. First responders and folks who work outdoors or indoors with equipment that releases heat (stoves or furnaces, for example) also face heightened risks.
There needs to be more education and awareness around heat stress in the workplace, the WMO and WHO urge. Preventative measures include boosting warning systems for heat waves, similar to warnings people might receive ahead of other environmental disasters. Employers should plan for longer or more frequent breaks, and can redesign uniforms and workplaces to keep workers cooler. They should also have plans for what to do in case of heat-related emergencies.
Lawmakers can get the ball rolling on this work by introducing policies that standardize these kinds of solutions. In the US, the Biden administration proposed new protections for workers last year in an effort to prevent heat-related illnesses and deaths on the job. A heat index of 90F or higher would trigger 15-minute breaks every couple of hours for certain jobs, for instance. But we’ll have to see whether those proposed measures will survive the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda.
The biggest step that businesses and policymakers can take, of course, is to slash fossil fuel emissions causing global warming. Otherwise, all we can do is keep playing catch-up as the mercury rises.
“Climate change is reshaping the world of work,” Pintado Nunes said.
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