With unusually high temperatures due to climate change, heat stress has become a disease of the times, especially among workers who lose their lives on the job due to extreme heat in countries all over the world.
The growing number of climate-related deaths due to global warming
Global data indicates that heat waves cause an increase in heatstroke cases and deaths among outdoor workers, particularly in agriculture, construction, street maintenance, and waste collection.
Research shows that the risk of workplace accidents increases by 5% to 7% when temperatures exceed 30°C, while the risk of accidents increases by 10% to 15% when temperatures exceed 38°C.
Currently, about 21% of the world's population faces dangerous levels of heat stress for more than a third of the year during their regular working hours, which extend from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to an analysis conducted by the University of Colorado Boulder.
According to International Labor Organization estimates, more than 80,000 people were injured at work due to heat exposure in 2020 in the European Union alone, resulting in 67 deaths.
According to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), EU countries have seen a 42% increase in the number of heat-related deaths at work since 2000.
Working at night
As global warming intensifies, with temperatures reaching record levels that made 2023 the hottest year on record, the international community has begun searching for solutions to protect workers from the risks associated with climate change and avoid a repeat of the tragedies witnessed in previous years.
To manage heat risks in the business sector, there have been calls to implement evening work hours, especially for outdoor workers.
Some farming and fishing communities in countries such as Brazil, India, and the United States have begun implementing a dark-day work schedule for a period of time, or even completely switching to a night-time work schedule, as a way to cope with rising temperatures.
Results of the shift to evening working hours
Research conducted by the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore has shown that regularly working nights causes physical and mental distress and can lead to long-term health complications. Night work also leads to sleep disturbances, physical stress, depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, and a reduced quality of life.
Dr. Zia Mehrabi, a food security and climate researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder, says that working at night can lead to human rights violations, along with other negative impacts. It threatens social routines, as daytime sleep schedules reduce the time people spend with their families.
Violation of the human body's biological clock
Mary Jo Dudley, director of the Farm Worker Program at Cornell University, believes that as more American farmers adopt nighttime work schedules, the burdens and inequalities they face are increasing.
Dudley points out that the shift to a night-time schedule is pushing a highly vulnerable population into more difficult working conditions, with significant impacts on mental and physical health.
She explains that disrupting the human body's circadian rhythm, which regulates sleep and wake times, increases a person's risk of health complications such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, and reduces the body's ability to cope with injury and stress.
The director of the Farm Workers Program at Cornell University adds that working unconventional hours, such as nighttime hours, can reduce a person's ability to interact socially or participate in cultural and community activities, which are associated with positive effects on brain and body health.
Difficulty implementing night work schedules
While it is possible to shift to evening work hours in some sectors, there are sectors where this shift seems difficult to adopt, such as livestock herding, because darkness does not provide security and threatens the safety of the herd.
In addition to the effects of high temperatures, which have caused pastures to wither and milk production to decline, the reduction in safe working hours also leads to a decrease in income, forcing herders to migrate to urban areas and seek other work.
The impact of the evening working hours system on women
Women, in particular, are exposed to the double social and economic impacts of the shift to night work schedules, as they must care for their children, manage food and water, and face other climate hazards such as flooding to protect their families.
In this regard, Dr. Zia Mehrabi said that night work hours conflict with women's family roles and do not represent a universally applicable solution, as changing work hours disrupts family growth.
These impacts could extend to a global level, harming the future of food, for example. Rural women are responsible for producing 50% of the world's food, and in developing countries, their contribution reaches 80%. With their inability to adopt night work for family reasons or due to physical exhaustion, agricultural yields will decrease, their profit margins will shrink, and the gender gap will widen due to climate change.
In addition to all of the above, there is a fact that many people may not know: heat waves also occur at night, and temperatures may rise more rapidly at night than during the day, which affects human health, according to a study recently published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives entitled: "Extreme heat at night contributes to an increased risk of death."
For workers around the world, it's a race to maintain their livelihoods. But as the Arab proverb goes, they are like someone who seeks refuge from the scorching heat of the day in the fire of work at night. The damage is not limited to health, but extends to social, economic, mental health, and climate inequality. Workers are the most vulnerable to risks, yet they contribute the least to climate change in the world.
