US EditionWHO warns of risks of extreme heat in the workplace
The WHO and WMO report reveals worker productivity declines by 2-3% per degree above 20°C, urging global adaptation to rising heat stress impacting billions worldwide.
- On Friday, the World Health Organization and World Meteorological Organization issued a joint report warning extreme heat places over 2.4 billion workers, or 71% of the global workforce, at serious risk.
- Drawing on five decades of evidence, the report says climate change drives more frequent heatwaves, with 2024 the hottest year on record and temperatures above 40C common in parts of Europe.
- Guidance found that for every one degree above 20C productivity falls by 2%, with over 22.85 million occupational injuries annually linked to heat, including heatstroke, dehydration, and kidney dysfunction.
- WHO officials said adapting buildings and workplaces will require investment, with last month the Italian government signing an emergency decree to stop work during hottest hours and construction paused in Swiss cantons of Geneva and Ticino in 2023, welcomed by Unia.
- The report highlights that vulnerable communities with limited access to cooling face the greatest dangers, and work-related heat stress hits them most severely, agencies urged governments and employers to adopt heat action plans.
22 Articles
22 Articles
UN warns that extreme heat, increasingly frequent and intense, directly affects the physical health of those working in exposed conditions
Governments and employers should take urgent steps to protect workers' health from exposure to extreme temperatures, warns the United Nations, according to Reuters. Climate change makes temperatures...
Extreme heat is becoming one of the biggest occupational hazards and will have "catastrophic effects" for workers in the future if measures are not taken to mitigate its impact, the World Health Organization said Friday.
Workers need better protections from the heat
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 i…
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