More than 70% of workers worldwide face health risks from climate change, and more than 2.4 billion people are likely to be exposed to excessive heat at work, a study suggests. report published Monday by the United Nations.
Climate change is already having serious consequences for the safety and health of workers around the world: excessive heat, extreme weather conditions, solar UV rays and air pollution have led to an alarming increase in certain diseases, according to the conclusions of the International Labor Organization. , a United Nations agency.
An estimated 18,970 lives are lost each year due to workplace accidents attributable to excessive heat, and more than 26.2 million people suffer from chronic kidney disease linked to heat stress in the workplace, says The report.
More than 860,000 outdoor workers die each year from exposure to air pollution, and nearly 19,000 people die each year from non-melanoma skin cancer following exposure to UV rays. solar.
“Workplace safety and health considerations must be part of our responses to climate change, both in our policies and in our actions,” said Manal Azzi, Occupational Safety and Health Team Leader at the ILO. declared.
As average temperatures rise, heat-related illnesses are a growing safety and health problem for workers around the world, including in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that exposure to environmental heat claimed the lives of 36 workers in 2021 and 56 in 2020.
More recently, a 26-year-old man suffered fatal heat-related injuries while working in an open sugar cane field in Belle Glade, Fla., as the heat index reached 97 degrees, the DOL said last week, citing a contractor for failing to protect the worker.
“This young man’s life ended on his first day of work because his employer failed to fulfill its duty to protect its employees from exposure to heat, a known and increasingly dangerous hazard,” Condell Eastmond, OSHA’s Fort Lauderdale regional director, said of the September investigation. the death.
Exposure to ambient heat killed 999 American workers between 1992 and 2021, an average of 33 deaths per year, according to the Department of Labor. That said, statistics on heat-related occupational illnesses, injuries and deaths are likely “significantly underestimated,” the agency said.
