is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home , a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals.
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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.
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