So, workers fall their hands get caught in machinery they touch the wrong wire they get hit by a front-end loader. Sudden heatstroke is not the only worry, for rising body temperatures can quickly fuzz the mind, weaken muscles and numb concentration. The impact of heat is poorly understood, even by workers. Also, researchers have determined that extreme workplace heat is causing about 170,000 people a year to suffer injuries on the job. Unsurprisingly, the yearly number of worker heat deaths in that period doubled. Then, welcome to climate change: 20 of the last 21 years gave us the hottest temperatures on record. But indoors is no better if there's no AC, for sprawling warehouse and manufacturing plants made of metal and stone become ovens. Those toiling outdoors - including farmworkers, roofers and carpenters, airport ground crews, landscapers, road and street repairers, letter carriers and trash collectors - are in the direct line of fire for this invisible, insidious killer. workers each year than all the floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined. As we're learning, week after week of debilitating heat intensifies wildfires, causes electric grids to fail, kills millions of wild animals (including fish), burns up crops and concentrates toxic air.īut there's another impact that draws little notice: Heat kills workers. Indeed, those searing days of 95-100-110 degrees kill and injure more U.S. It's been a hell of a hot summer, exploding the top off thermometers with deadly, triple-digit readings across the country, including in far northern regions that've almost never seen such extremes. WORK SAFETY - Here's a hot topic for Labor Day: heat.

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