Beware: an epidemic of heat-incited injuries is likely hitting workers out in the field as climate change continues to take hold, a new U.N. report has revealed.
Developing countries are facing up to 10 percent losses in working hours due to dire workplace conditions brought about by climate change, with losses rising above $2 trillion by the year 2030. Outdoor workers are facing a slower pace, taking longer break periods and seeking refuge from the heat by working during the dawn and dusk hours.
More than a billion employees and employers in vulnerable nations are already grappling with severe heat in the workplace, according to the report “Climate Change and Labor: Impacts of Heat in the Workplace,” a joint project of the International Labor Organization (ILO), World Health Organization (WHO) and U.N. Development Program.
Presented at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the report marked International Workers’ Memorial Day and called attention to increasing workplace heat as an immediate occupational hazard leading to heat stroke and death.
“[Workplace heat] is another layer of vulnerability to developing countries already reeling from the adverse impacts of climate change,” said Cecelia Rebong, ambassador and permanent Philippine representation to the United Nations, who called for adhering to the carbon emissions limit or 1.5 degree Celsius goal set out in the Paris climate deal.
Most at risk are the southern United States, Central America and the Caribbean, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, to name a few. These highly exposed zones are concentrated on outdoor labor and industrial services with ineffective climate control in place, added the report.
In the West African territory, the number of extremely hot days every year has now doubled since the 1960s, with a rise of about 10 scorching hot days every decade.
Even if the 1.5 degree Celsius limit is met, some regions would face nearly a full month of added extreme heat each year by year 2030, the report warned. The heat is expected to reduce productivity, increase work breaks and elevate injury risks.
Matthew McKinnon, U.N. climate vulnerable support forum manager, witnessed the dramatic effects of high heat on his recent Ghana trip.
“We had truck drivers who were complaining that the rates of tire bursts were increasing a lot because of the heat,” he told the Guardian. “Farmers too were worried that they had to spend too much time in open fields in the hot season.”
In many low- and middle-income nations, more than half of the labor force is already facing heat hazards that also affect employees in factories with poor air systems and ventilation. Most prone to the challenge are men slogging through heavy-lifting work, as well as pregnant women – especially in rural settings – forced to work for economic reasons.
Heat reaching a maximum threshold and temperatures climbing beyond 2 degrees Celsius, McKinnon said, could spell disaster in the tropics and sub-tropics. Probably the worst-hit in the coming century are countries like Cambodia, Bangladesh and Burkina Faso, which had already lost 2 to 3 percent of their daylight work hours by the middle of the 1990s because of extreme heat.
Once temperatures go above the body’s 37 degrees Celsius, one would need to expel heat via sweat evaporation. If dress codes or high humidity gets in the way of doing this, it would be necessary to reduce the rate of working to prevent dehydration and heat stroke.
The report called for reasonable measures like availability of drinking water in the workplace, frequent rest breaks, manageable output targets and increased employee income and condition protection.
“Governments and employers have to take this issue of the cauldron of a warming planet seriously and develop some effective policy responses and practical measures to protect workers,” said UNI Global Union general secretary Philip Jennings.
Photo: John Pavelka | Flickr
