Joint U.S.-Brazil Campaign on Heat Stress Aims to Protect Workers Worldwide

The International Labor Organization has announced a new global campaign to expand international cooperation and policy exchanges as well as support research on best practices for protecting workers from heat stress. The campaign, which launched in late July at the G20 Labor and Employment Ministers’ Meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil, is a joint initiative of Brazil's Ministry of Labor and Employment and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) with the support of ILO. The campaign stems from the Partnership for Workers’ Rights, a global initiative to advance the rights of working people, which was announced by U.S. President Joe Biden and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in September.

According to DOL, the heat campaign will also seek to expand international cooperation and policy exchanges as well as support research on best practices for protecting workers from heat stress.

“Progress towards establishing regulations, standards, and industry best practices to combat heat stress has been uneven across the broader international community,” DOL’s website states. “This disparity underscores the necessity of a global campaign to address heat-related challenges in the workplace—and the importance of strengthening worker voice to address the problem.”

A report released by ILO in April addresses the major occupational safety and health impacts of climate change. The organization estimates that more than 2.4 billion workers per year, representing 70 percent of the global workforce of 3.4 billion people, are exposed to excessive heat during their work.

To learn more about the new global heat campaign, read the ILO news release.

Related: Articles published in The Synergist in April 2016 and April 2020 discuss protecting workers in hot environments and critical factors for heat stress assessment and prevention, respectively. An article published in the June/July 2022 issue of the magazine focuses on reducing heat burden from personal protective equipment and other factors.