Nina Luckman writes for Risk & Insurance:

Extreme heat is on the rise in the United States, challenging the ability of many industries and employers to keep workers safe, especially in high risk industries with considerable amounts of outdoor work, such as construction. While we can expect unabated climate change to continue to pose a threat, we do have a playbook to mitigate these risks. Devoting the resources to create a plan, and more importantly, implementing the plan, can quite literally save lives on the jobsite...

Another Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) study using claims data and weather data from 2016 to 2021 across 24 states found that the probability of work-related accidents increases by five to six percent when the maximum daily temperature rises above 90°F, relative to a day with temperatures in the 65–70°F range. Even more concerning is correlative findings in the study indicating a stronger effect on traumatic injuries, illustrating the potentially compounding effect of heat stress which leads to a catastrophic fall.

Read the full article here.