Climate change is making work more difficult and dangerous for billions of people, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.
In Europe and Central Asia, the proportion of people exposed to excessive heat at work is low by global standards, but it has increased more than in any other region of the world over the past 20 years, the ILO said.
Heat affects not only people who work outdoors such as in fields or on construction sites, but also those who are employed in factories or who have to wear protective suits such as firefighters.
Almost 22.9 million people experience accidents due to heat at work every year, and almost 19,000 die as a result, the report said.
Meanwhile 26.2 million people live with chronic kidney problems because they do not drink enough fluid at work. Once temperatures reach 32 degrees Celsius, someone doing manual labour has to drink 0.85 litres of water per hour.
In 2020, 29% of workers in the Europe and Central Asia region were exposed to excessive heat at times. The region spans from Portugal through Afghanistan to the western border of China. This is 17.3% more than 20 years previously, the ILO said.
In all other regions of the world, the proportion was already significantly higher in 2020 and has risen less sharply.
The largest proportion is in Africa, where 90.2% of people are exposed to excessive heat at work at times, followed by the Arab states with 83.6%.
In total, 2.4 billion people worldwide are confronted with such heat.