Workers need better protections from the heat 

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 Organizatio