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ILO Press Conference: Impacts of climate on occupational safety and health - 22 April 2024
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Press Conferences , Edited News | ILO
ILO Press Conference: Impacts of climate on occupational safety and health - 22 April 2024
STORY: Impacts of climate change on workers - ILO
TRT: 2:34”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 22 April 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Exterior wide shot: UN flag alley
- Med shot: speakers at the podium during press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Manal Azzi, Senior Specialist on Occupational Safety and Health (ILO): “More than 70 per cent of our workers are exposed to excessive heat, at least excessive heat, at one point in their working lives. That's 2.4 billion workers globally.”
- Med shot: Photographer taking pictures
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Manal Azzi, Senior Specialist on Occupational Safety and Health (ILO): “More than 22 million workers suffering from sicknesses and injuries related to exposure to excessive heat and these can range from injuries in transport, in traffic accidents due to bad night of sleep, because it was excessively hot, to construction accidents, injuries, slips and falls related to the exposure to heat.”
- Wide shot: speakers at the podium with journalists in press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Manal Azzi, Senior Specialist on Occupational Safety and Health (ILO): “Nearly 20,000 workers are dying yearly because of these injuries in the workplace related to rising temperatures and to exposure to excessive heat, indoor and outdoor heat, and losing millions - over 2 million disability-adjusted years - are lost because of injuries and deaths related to heat.”
- Med shot: Zoom operators behind window in control room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Manal Azzi, Senior Specialist on Occupational Safety and Health (ILO): “15,000 people die due to parasitic and vector borne diseases exposed to in the workplace. Obviously, these include a lot of diseases like dengue, rabies and various diseases that are increasing in regions that we never used to see them before. Malaria has even increased and we're seeing it's shown in countries that it never used to be before.”
- Med shot: speakers at the podium with journalists in press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Manal Azzi, Senior Specialist on Occupational Safety and Health (ILO): “The key issues we face are not where it's known to be very hot for the longest period where people are very acclimatized. But it's the new regions where heat was never such an issue and has become an issue that we're facing some of the acute injuries that that we're seeing today. So we do have a list of detailed policy examples, collective bargaining examples, but also awareness raising and training programs that deal with all of the hazards I mentioned from vector borne disease control to air pollution to pesticides.”
- Close up: journalist listening
- Med shot, panelists at the podium
- Med shot, journalists in press room
Global warming: excessive heat affects 70 percent of workers – ILO
More than 70 percent of the world's workforce faces potential health risks due to climate change, according to the latest report of the International Labour Organization (ILO), published on Monday. This staggering statistic underscores the pressing need to revamp existing occupational safety and health measures to adequately address the emerging threats posed by climate-related hazards.
“More than 70 per cent of our workers are exposed to excessive heat, at least excessive heat, at one point in their working lives. That's 2.4 billion workers globally,” out of a global workforce of 3,4 billion, said Manal Azzi, Senior Specialist on Occupational Safety and Health (ILO) at the report launch at the United Nations in Geneva.
Entitled “Ensuring safety and health at work in a changing climate,” the report states that climate change is already having a serious impact on the safety and health of workers in all regions of the world.
Workers, particularly those in the world's most impoverished regions, face heightened susceptibility to the perils of climate extremes like scorching heatwaves, prolonged droughts, raging wildfires, and devastating hurricanes, according to the ILO.
The share of global workers impacted by climate change hazards has increased by about 5 percentage points, to 70 percent, from 65 percent in the year 2000, the report said.
According to Ms. Azzi, “more than 22 million workers suffering from sicknesses and injuries related to exposure to excessive heat and these can range from injuries in transport, in traffic accidents due to bad night of sleep because it was excessively hot, to construction accidents, injuries, slips and falls related to the exposure to heat.”
The report notes that numerous health conditions in workers have been linked to climate change, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses, kidney disfunction and mental health conditions. The impact includes the 1.6 billion workers exposed to UV radiation, with more than 18,960 work-related deaths annually from nonmelanoma skin cancer.
“Nearly 20,000 workers are dying yearly because of these injuries in the workplace related to rising temperatures and to exposure to excessive heat, indoor and outdoor heat, and losing millions - over 2 million disability-adjusted years - are lost because of injuries and deaths related to heat,” said ILO’s specialist on occupational safety and health.
With increasing temperatures and higher humidity, more pesticides are used in the agriculture sector. According to the report, there are more than 870 million workers in agriculture that are likely to be exposed to pesticides, with more than 300,000 deaths attributed to pesticide poisoning annually.
“15,000 people die due to parasitic and vector borne diseases exposed to in the workplace,” noted Ms. Azzi. “Obviously, these include a lot of diseases like dengue, rabies and various diseases that are increasing in regions that we never used to see them before. Malaria has even increased and we're seeing it's shown in countries that it never used to be before.”
The ILO expert highlighted that “the key issues we face are not where it's known to be very hot for the longest period where people are very acclimatized. But it's the new regions where heat was never such an issue and has become an issue that we're facing some of the acute injuries that that we're seeing today,” explained Ms. Azzi. “So we do have a list of detailed policy examples, collective bargaining examples, but also awareness raising and training programs that deal with all of the hazards I mentioned from vector borne disease control to air pollution to pesticides.”
Ms. Azzi stressed that all these factors are interlinked and that the right tools need to be in place to measure the impact and to be able to work on recommendations.
A major meeting is planned for 2025 by the ILO with the participation of government, employer and worker representatives to provide policy guidance on climate hazards.
-ends-
Teleprompter
good morning, colleagues and thank you very much for being with us. Uh, today,
my name is Zain Awad and I am the chief
of news and multimedia at the International Labour Organisation.
I'm very pleased to welcome you today to the launch of
our ensuring safety and health at work in a changing climate report
I'm also pleased to have with me today our occupational safety and health lead.
Um at the ILOM Manel
ai who will be presenting the main findings of our report
as well as our OS
data specialist Belin
Aran.
Welcome both.
And without further ado, the floor is yours, man.
Thank you so much. Zenna. Thank you. Everyone who has joined us. Um,
we're very happy to launch this report today, which you may have received copies of,
um it contains very important information
about the impact of climate change and what's happening to the
workers around the world across different regions and across sectors.
Uh, globally.
This is a huge issue and it has come at a timely moment in
the discussion around climate change because workers are often forgotten
when we are talking about climate change and the health impacts
that are very severe
from deaths to millions of sick people
because of hazards exacerbated by climate change
but also millions living with chronic
diseases.
We are talking about cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases,
cancer and mental health illnesses like depression, irritability
and other issues related to
the exposures that they are facing.
We have decided in the report to focus on a number of
hazards according to severity and to
their prevalence globally and across regions.
We have looked at heat, stress and heat, excessive heat at work.
Also UV radiation and solar UV radiation,
air pollution
that is increasing globally for indoor and outdoor workers for the quality of
the air indoor and also the air pollution they are exposed to externally.
We have also looked at parasitic and vector
borne diseases that are also increasing and changing
the patterns where we find them
and the seasonality and distribution geographically
and in turn,
that is leading to more exposure to pesticides in the agricultural world.
So we are getting more use of very highly hazardous pesticides,
and workers are the first people exposed to that as well.
So we have selected some of these issues, not to mention the extreme
weather events that we are facing globally, from flooding to hurricanes
and to droughts, wildfires that are directly impacting workers in the immediate
moment, but also chronically over time.
And so we decided to explore what is the size and scope of this impact?
And we know now that more than 70% of our workers are exposed to excessive heat,
at least excessive heat at one point in their working lives.
That's 2.4 billion workers globally.
And this is not to mention the overlap of
the exposures between the other hazards I mentioned.
And there is a very clear increase.
If we are looking in the past two decades, we see a 35% increase.
But even if we were to adjust that for the increase in the labour force,
we also see an 8.8% of increase in exposure
to excessive heat due to rising temperatures globally.
This is having detrimental effects on the health of workers,
not to mention on the health system as a whole.
So in addition to that, people are sick, workers are sick.
We are looking at more than 22 million workers suffering
from sicknesses and injuries related to exposure to excessive heat.
And these can range from injuries in transport in traffic accidents due to
a bad night of sleep because it was excessively hot to construction accidents,
injuries, slips and falls related to the exposure to heat.
We are also seeing a recent study have shown
that over 26 million people are living with chronic
kidney disease due to exposure in excessive heat for
long periods of time during their working lives.
That is huge to the public health system, but also to workers
deaths.
What we know and these are obviously just
estimates and this could be very much underestimated.
Nearly 20,000 workers are dying yearly because of these injuries
in the workplace, related to
in temperatures and to exposure to excessive heat, indoor and outdoor heat
and losing millions to over 2 million disability adjusted years
are lost because of injuries and deaths related to heat.
If we're just to look at UV radiation,
and of course there's a very different thing than
than heat and not everybody exposed to U,
radiation is exposed to excessive heat,
but we're looking at different kinds of injuries and
and burns and and one of the biggest one.
And the biggest killer, obviously,
is non melanoma cancer that workers are dying from.
Uh, we're looking at more than 19,000 workers
dying due to non melanoma cancer due to exposure to solar UV radiation.
Then if we move to air pollution, um,
we know that more than 1.6 billion workers globally work outside
and they are exposed to air pollution.
A recent study we published also in 2021 estimated that 860,000
work related deaths can be attributable to air pollution here,
I say occupational death.
These are just the ones that are work related that we are exposed to,
uh um on a daily basis, uh, by by the mere fact that they work outside
and more in relation to climate change as well. And something we are seeing.
We are getting reports of globally and the new data again
that our report that you have received has shown is that 15,000 people die
due to parasitic and vector borne diseases are exposed to in the workplace.
Obviously, these include a lot of diseases like dengue,
Rabies, um,
and, uh,
and and various diseases that are increasing in
regions that we never used to see them before
and malaria has even increased.
And we're seeing it shown in countries that it never
used to be before due to this rise in temperatures,
humidity, variations in patterns of rainfall,
and that impacts the seasonality of where we're finding these parasite
and the prevalence of these diseases that we are dealing with.
And then for the more than 860 million workers working outside in agriculture,
they are having to use more pesticides.
We know that to grow our crops and to be able to be productive and efficient,
we need to be able to
control the pests.
And if they are increasing due to rising temperatures and changing climates,
we need to be increasing pesticides to
to make them more efficient. And some of them are becoming very highly pesticides.
We know that more than 300,000 people die from
pesticide poisoning yearly in some of these big farms,
So this is affecting a large population as well.
And the impact, you know, just overlaps one impact,
one hazardous exposure after the other
coming to extreme weather events.
A
lot of us have seen the wildfires that have increased,
not to mention heat waves.
It's important to note that one of 10 injuries that we see is related to heat waves,
but the other nine out of 10 is regular exposure to excessive heat.
But droughts,
hurricane
flooding, all of the patterns of these climate crises around us are increasing.
And that is why emergency response and
preparedness in occupational safety and health has
become an issue to deal with some
of these rising weather events and changing patterns
very quickly. Then the responses. What are we looking at?
We are not starting from scratch.
Legislation that protects workers and protects their safety and health
has already existing legislation looking globally at different regions.
We see that from the sixties there have been
protections and measures to control high temperatures at work,
indoor and outdoor quality of work,
but also vector borne diseases in some of the tropical countries.
But now this is spreading to countries that are not used to
dealing with some of the hazards workers are exposed to,
and it is affecting workers.
And so we looked globally.
We saw new legislation coming out in a lot of the
countries that either calls on limiting exposure to excessive heat.
Working hours need to be limited
acclimatising workers providing proper hydration,
providing proper personal protective equipment for cooling purposes,
but that need to be obviously adapted to the worker
and occupational exposure limits.
We do have some already that limit exposure to high temperatures
and also limit exposure to air pollution.
But we rarely have occupational exposure limits set
for the other hazards we talked about.
Moreover,
the list of occupational diseases what is recognised
as a disease that is work related,
so a lot of new legislation and policies are looking into.
They need to include from biological agents and biological hazards,
but also pesticide related disorders that can be recognised
and compensated for in the list of diseases.
Collective bargaining has been crucial in ensuring in some sectoral
and regions some sectoral work,
the rights of workers in facing some of these hazards
and preventing these hazards and protecting workers from them.
Technical guidance on emergency preparedness
on controlling vector borne diseases have
also been produced globally and we have some great examples.
I think in
in the report that you also have seen
training programmes.
Of course we have a lot on protection from
the sun and from burns and different injuries.
But we have to be now moving and scaling this up globally
because the exposure and the impact has taken a whole new scale.
And public health initiatives have started to look at
the workplace as a main place of action,
a main place for prevention.
So some of these public health schemes have now included
action at the workplace as one of their strategic priorities,
because this is where the workers are most exposed over the longest period of time
and for the longest
hours of the day and with great impact on their health that we mentioned earlier.
So this is just some of the global responses and some of the issues. Obviously the I
has international labour standards that stand
relevant today, including becoming
becoming a fundamental principle at work.
So all our workers need to be provided so
that we can ensure safe and healthy working environments.
And it's a responsibility for the
Osh community, for our governments, ministries of labour,
our workers and our employers representing some of these
enterprises and workplaces that we are talking about today.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Uh, Manel for this, um excellent presentation.
Very interesting On the impact of climate
change on occupational health and safety or OS
of workers.
we have a number of, uh, journalists online, but before we turn to them, let's, uh,
begin with those who was who are here.
If you could kindly introduce yourselves and the outlet that you're with, I
give you the floor.
Thank you. Uh, Nina Larson with a FP.
Um, I was wondering if you could explain, uh,
how a little bit more about how you got these numbers?
Uh, how do you distinguish between how people are, uh,
impacted by climate change in the workplace and when they're
actually living in the same community where they work?
If you could sort of S, uh, say a bit more about the statistics. Thank you.
Sure.
So just to quickly explain So the way we measured and I'll
hand over to our data specialist next to me as well,
we are looking at climate models and population
data and the labour force survey of the
and some meta analysis on exposures and impact on the health of workers globally.
And looking at
the variations in high temperature in particular areas
and how it has affected people over a long period
of time and linking that to the global burden of
disease.
For some of the impacts that we have, we were able to come out with the exposure limit.
So for excessive heat,
we now know how many people are exposed to heat during their life course.
We are also publishing a separate methodology and background information
on heat stress coming out in July this year,
and that's just for heat
and for the rest of the data. Obviously, the ILO
has global estimates, and we produce that every few years that looks
certain databases for certain years on what has been registered and recorded
on the most highest, for example, uh, days of highest temperature,
but also compensation and for diseases that have
been claimed and and various other input and meta
analysis from the literature around the world that
have led us to believe that the linkages,
uh, related to heat and to air pollution and to other vector borne diseases, uh,
are there.
But, um, for more detail, maybe I can pass over to
my colleague.
OK, thank you
so as
explained. We link up the number of deaths or injuries attributable to heat
and
the way looking at climate change is actually looking at the trend in time.
So of course we don't know what the temperature
hot day is coming due to the climate change which
hot day is due to because it's a hot day.
But what we see in the change in the last 20 years
that by nine per cent
the attribute of a fraction increased so that nine per
cent increase which is due to the changing climate.
So so I I'm still having trouble understanding how, uh, you distinguish.
I mean, if people are working in their communities where they're exposed to heat,
for instance, where how you distinguish between people who are exposed to heat
just in their communities and and on the job, uh,
to make that distinction for instance.
OK, so
the burden envelope we are looking at,
those are the reported fatal or non fatal occupational injuries.
So we specifically looking at people who got the injury or
at
work. So
that is the total we are calculating.
There is a separate estimate looking at the global population
and how many people die because of hot weather.
That's a different one. So these are
only specific to those injuries which happened at work.
So
that's the major cut between the two
floor is yours.
And I think that that follows on from from your question a little bit, Um,
just to specify.
So when we're talking about this being 70% of the workforce for us,
the workforce includes those persons of working age
who are actively engaged in the labour market.
It's independent of employment.
Unemployed people are included and includes both the formal and the informal
economy. So we are looking at a wide range of workers.
So you know, you have family farming.
You have people who are working in undeclared sort of work
are covered because there are different angles of public systems and
statistic, like statistics, databases that we can access that we're looking at.
So they're not just the formal recognised workers globally.
Thank you very much. Do we have any more questions from the room?
OK, we can turn now, uh, to our colleagues online.
And, um, a reminder to introduce yourselves in your outlet. I hand over to Lisa
Schlein.
Thank you Good morning. Uh, Lisa Schlein,
Voice of America.
I have a couple of questions here.
I'd like you to be specific in terms of the kinds of measures
that should be adopted in order to protect people from
from heat from pesti. Uh uh. Well, um,
you know all the other horrors
that
that you've been talking about. Uh, if you'd be specific about that,
uh, I I'm I'm thinking one thing that's sort of troubling.
Just recently, the governor of, uh,
Florida, um, vetoed a proposal to provide workers who are working outside with
with water
with, uh, rest periods with shade.
I don't know whether you consider this appropriate whether people
are likely to,
uh,
be more exposed to danger and possibly get very ill and die from this sort of thing.
But if you would talk about the various measures,
uh, that you propose also, uh, what areas? Uh uh, where are people most at risk.
I'm thinking of perhaps Africa, which tends to be very, very hot.
Uh, so if you could deal with that. Thank you.
Um, thank you so much for that question.
And thank you for bringing the Florida situation.
Obviously,
it has come to our attention from
our our International Trade Union confederation and
without commenting on the details of that. I
think we have a long way to go in raising global awareness
of what can be done both at the legislative framework level,
but also at workplace level to implement some of these guidance.
There are very clear measures,
obviously that are stated and there are
clear examples of countries taking concrete action,
so I'd rather not name the countries.
A lot of countries from different regions are in the report
and some of them are actually being very
specific on exposure limits and high temperature exposure,
so that if you are doing low, medium or high intensity work,
what are the various measures it could be from?
For high intensity work,
you are not allowed to be exposed to more than 24 degrees temperature.
And that's a whole other discussion about how we measure temperature,
the wet bulb and dry bulb measuring of
temperatures, but also the level of humidity
in a certain workplace.
But obviously the key and basic measures it's not
rocket science for the workplace and especially for heat,
are hydration
and the limiting the exposure temperature and limiting
the time and very long rest breaks.
We have countries that have that have
high degree high temperature that have stopped
work between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on certain work days.
We have measures, for example,
to limit pesticides.
And we know that pesticides have an accumulative effect when they are being
sprayed during the hot moment of the day where they limit spraying pesticides,
for example only in the cool evening or early morning hours.
So we have this level of limiting occupational exposure and really putting limits
and numbers. There is no global figure, and the I
cannot stand behind one global element because it has
to take into account the kind of work the sector
that this is happening in
also for air pollution. There is also lots of protections
in terms of emissions but also limiting the exposure hours.
But providing the adequate protective equipment for workers has
also worked well in a lot of these and
allowing workers to pace their work where we listen
to what makes the worker affected more or not,
and different workers are acclimatised differently,
and some of the key issues we face are not where it is known
to be very hot for the longest period where people are very acclimatised.
But it's the new regions where heat was never such an issue
and has become an issue that we're facing some of the acute
injuries that that we're seeing today.
So we do have a list of detailed policy examples collective bargaining examples,
but also
awareness raising and training programmes that deal with all of
the hazards I mentioned from vector borne disease control to
solution to pesticides.
The key message we want to bring out today is that they are all interlinked,
so we can't be dealing with one of these hazards.
Forget about the other and we need to be having the right
tools to explore and measure what are the best solutions for different places
now, some of the regions that are most affected.
Obviously we do know, you know,
from the Northern Hemisphere to Southern hemisphere
the various areas and types of work,
especially those that are outdoor from agriculture construction
that are most affected by excessive heat and also by UV radiation and air pollution.
Um, and and so it varies between these regions between countries, in Latin America,
in Africa, in Asia
and in Europe.
But, you know, as as we hear today also in the news I mean in Europe,
which some people may not have thought.
This is a problem. It's a rising concern. It's a rising concern of emergency levels.
And and so we're seeing this is also covered very well
today as well. Thanks.
Sorry. I don't know if my colleague Balin wanted to add anything particular
Maybe I just want to highlight the changes. So, as
I mentioned,
the largest burden is obviously places where the temperature is the hottest.
So close to the equatorial.
What came out of the report is linked to climate
change that the regions where we see the fastest change
are the places where we don't expect.
So That's central and northern Europe for the hot weathers
and mostly South America for the heatwave events.
Thank you both. Uh, Lisa, your hand is still up. Do you have a follow up?
Uh, yeah, I. I do, actually, um
uh my
land. Is that your name?
I'm sorry if I'm if I'm fracturing your names,
but you were talking about your your concerns were mainly about the new regions
that were being affected by climate change. Uh, could you be specific about,
uh, which regions they are?
And are they, uh and and is it a matter of heat primarily,
which is your greatest concern or other, uh,
hazards? Thank you.
Well, we have estimates for heat, heat waves and UVR,
and they are all different.
So the largest change when it comes to heat,
that's in northern Europe and Central Europe.
When it comes to heat waves, that's the South Americas.
And for U,
that's mostly Australia and Africa.
Thank you.
Uh, I'd like to go to Kathrine Fianca.
Bonga
next over to you.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Um, Katrin F
kambo
conga
for Fran Van
Kra.
Thank you for this briefing.
I'd like to come back on what has been
mentioned about the regions that are usually not affected.
Uh, used to be affected by climate change and by a very high temperature.
Um, you said that some measures have been taken.
I would like to know also about
maybe good practises,
uh,
that have been taken by other regions that
are used to high temperatures like Africa,
Latin America, the Gulf region,
and also the, um, issue of, um, electricity and use of air con,
um, as you all know, in European regions, Like, for instance, here in Switzerland,
we were not used to have such high temperatures.
Um, in Geneva, they started to change working hours.
Um, during summer, time for people working outside.
What about, um aircom
building?
Uh, also for people that are working indoors.
Uh, indoor,
Uh, but it's, um, start to be difficult. And, um,
how do you, um, expect the countries to take, um, measures?
Do you have? Do you plan to have, um uh, maybe a global um, conference on that topic.
Thank you to the three of you.
Thank you so much.
And it's good you mentioned that it's important to
say that given the importance of this issue,
the ILO tripartite constituents have come
together during our last international labour conference
and decided that in 2025 we will be holding
a tripartite expert meeting between our workers representatives,
employee representatives and governments, mainly ministries of labour,
to agree and discuss on the impact of climate change on occupational
safety and health and changing weather patterns and their impact on occupation,
safety and health.
This will be an important platform. Of course. It doesn't respond to the urgency
that we feel we need to be doing this. But obviously
things need to take their time.
And if we are able at the end of this tripartite, high level discussion,
to come out with important policy recommendations on
to guide countries globally on some of these measures, be they legal or technical
from policy and action measures, this would be really important.
So that's in 2025 the exact date. We don't know yet, but the
and its constituents have set it on their agenda.
So that will give us some global position on
the issue that we can help and guide further
for some of the concrete examples there are,
and we have a very developed annex in the report where we show some of these examples.
But it's important you mentioned the interlinks, obviously with poverty,
with access to electricity, with access to even clean water
and also the rights of workers to all of these,
some of the controls that we are seeing especially provided for in
technical guidelines that are adopted or validated at the national level,
our
engineering controls and so general ventilation, air commitment, cooling,
heat conduction,
blocking administrative controls in the area of occupational safety and health,
we try to follow a hierarchy of controls,
and this applies to mitigating the effects of climate change as well.
We are talking about elimination where we could relocate work to areas
with good air quality or postpone outdoor work where that is feasible.
Substitution minimise risks by
constituting a certain hazard with safer alternative.
And this, for example, when you can work inside
and it's feasible to do the same job inside, do it inside rather than outside,
or when you can replace a highly hazardous pesticide with a less hazardous
one.
Sometimes these do apply engineering controls by isolating workers from
air pollution or using air purifiers or air locks.
These are existing in a lot of, for example, Australia
and US technical guidelines from
and from EU
in Europe and others.
Administrative controls also giving the frequency of rest time for workers reduce
the physical intensity of work to reduce how air pollution is inhaled,
but also making sure that our personal protective equipment is suitable,
properly fitting, properly fitting and well maintained
for workers who are instructed to use them properly.
But there are so many examples those are at the workplace level.
But also strengthening our health surveillance systems to even
understand an account and link these hazards and exposures and health impacts
to the various exposures that we just spoke about is very important.
And we also have lots of examples of strategies.
I won't mention some European countries,
but also broader countries have six and seven
year strategies focusing on worker well being that include
clear instructions and indications on how to prevent
climate related exposures and impacts for workers globally.
Thank you for that.
Our next question is from Emma Farge.
I hope I pronounced your name correctly over to you.
Thanks a lot. Um,
I wanted to ask about green energy, renewable energy,
and And can you talk me through some examples
of how that is exposing workers to new dangers?
Um, and secondly, just a clarification. Please.
you spoke about the evolution of the number
of workers exposed to excessive heat over time.
I. I didn't recognise the figures that you mentioned.
I remembered, uh, about a 5% point. Um, increase But can you just talk me through
how many more people are exposed? Uh, versus 20 years ago.
And I think the last data was available. Thank you.
Thanks. Emma, can you also identify the, uh, media you're with,
uh, Reuters news agency?
Thank you.
Uh,
sure. Maybe I start with your second question.
Um, the the numbers I refer to is that, uh,
when looking at the differences between year 4020 there
was a 34.7 increase in the number of workers.
So that's the nearly 35% increase in the
number of workers exposed to excessive heat.
Um, this can be attributed to both an increase in the size of the labour force,
but also the rise in temperature.
So that's why it's a high increase.
But even when we adjust our account for the increase in the labour force,
we still find an increase from 65.2% of
all workers exposed in 2000 to 70.9% of workers
exposed in 2020 which is the 8.8% increase that
is only linked to the rise in temperatures and
adjusts for the increase in,
uh, in the labour force as a whole. So that's that number,
obviously, for green technology, Um, there are a number of examples.
the the main message there is that we need to just be aware just because
something is greening and providing opportunities for
better protections removal from highly dangerous jobs.
It does not mean that all the processes that we are doing,
even from recycling plastics, does not expose workers to more, for example,
chemical exposure
and other hazards of the sort. But maybe Balin,
you have some additions on the greening. Please.
Yeah, I can give maybe a few examples. One is the
the breakdown of solar panels, for example,
that's a big part of greening the electricity net.
But those panels made of heavy metals or contain heavy matters.
So, of course, the worker who is breaking glass of it
need to be aware
of the
risks of the contamination
or if recycling materials they usually come with solvents
and those, especially when the weather is hot,
they evaporate and can cause a number of risks for the workers.
So these are the interlinks between, say,
the greening environment and also the warming weather patterns.
Thank you.
We have, uh,
time for a couple of more questions If there are any from the colleagues on the call,
OK, I think, uh, that pretty much wraps, um, our round of questioning.
Uh, thank you all for being here today.
And a reminder that the embargo lifts in a bit in a little bit less than a half an hour.
Thank you.
Have a good day. Thank you to our panel as well.