FACTS

1. As the climate changes, heat waves are poised to get longer and more intense. That means more workers will face triple-digit temperatures, often for single-digit wages, threatening lives and livelihoods.
2. Heat Related illnesses cause workers to miss work. Heat can build up in the worker’s body and cause symptoms that range from headaches and dizziness to seizures, convulsions and death. Construction workers, maintenance staff, gardeners, and police officers are all exposed to hot conditions outdoors.
3. Hot conditions can also occur indoors. Boilers, steam pipes, ovens, heated tanks, and other such items can produce hot environments. Power plants, heat-treating operations, welding shops, plating shops. and steam tunnels, are examples of indoor hot environments.
4. A hot environment and physical exertion can combine to increase the body’s core temperature. A person working hard produces more heat than a worker whose pace is less intense. Another condition that can increase the body’s core temperature is radiant heat from direct sunlight or from nearby hot objects such as steam pipes, ovens, etc.
5. The human body cools itself by producing sweat. Sweat evaporating from the skin keeps the body cool. Higher humidity, limited air movement, and wearing protective equipment can reduce evaporation. Less evaporation means less cooling.

STATS

• Between 1992 and 2017, more than 815 workers were killed and 70,000 were seriously injured by heat stress between 1992 and 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• In 2014 alone, 2,630 workers suffered from heat illness and 18 died from heat stroke and related causes on the job.
• For farmworkers, delivery personnel, and construction crews, high temperatures can also mean heat exhaustion and related maladies. Between 1992 and 2016, excessive heat killed 783 US workers and seriously injured 69,374, according to the BLS.
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 15 million people in the United States have jobs that require them to be outdoors at some point, and rising temperatures are proving dangerous for them.
• By 2028, climate change will cost the US $360 billion per year, about half the expected growth of the economy, according to the Universal Ecological Fund.