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Labor reports say the heat has made work more dangerous and safety measures have not kept up.
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The International Labour Organization has found a sharp increase in workplace accidents due to heatstroke in the Americas.
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Excessive heat is having a negative impact on the global economy and workforce.
Extreme heat is not only making it harder to enjoy summer holidays, it’s also making work more dangerous than ever, a labour report has found.
The International Labour Organization reported that workers around the world are increasingly being exposed to extreme heat, and occupational safety and health measures are struggling to keep up. As well as putting workers at risk, extreme heat “undermines the resilience of economies,” the organization said.
“While climate-related mitigation efforts will require long-term, concerted action, workers are currently being injured and killed, making heat stress prevention measures urgently needed,” the report said.
According to the report, more than 26 million people worldwide suffer from chronic kidney disease linked to occupational heatstroke, with the majority of cases of excessive heat exposure and heatstroke occurring outside of heatwaves.
The report found that the Americas has the highest and fastest growing number of occupational injuries due to extreme heat, increasing by more than 33 percent since 2000, while workers in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Arab world are most frequently exposed to extreme heat.
The ILO called on countries to ensure that laws governing workers in extreme heat reflect “the increased climate change-related risks that many workers face every day”.
President Joe Biden’s administration recently proposed the first national standards to protect American workers during extreme heat. If approved, the standards could affect about 35 million workers in the construction, agriculture, delivery and landscaping industries, as well as workers in factories and other establishments without air conditioning.
The announcement comes amid reports that global warming and extreme heat could fuel inflation, including higher food prices. One study estimated that extreme heat could cost the global economy an average of $16 trillion between 1993 and 2023.
Read the original article on Business Insider
