Social and Labor Policies or Programs as Structural Determinants of Occupational Heat Vulnerability

Ambient heat poses a critical threat to population health. Heat exposures are associated with a variety of adverse health or well-being outcomes, including dehydration, acute cardiovascular respiratory events, injury, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and death. These risks are not borne equally; laborers working in industries that require hazardous heat exposures and high metabolic output—construction, agriculture, or manufacturing, among others—are particularly vulnerable. Identifying modifiable interventions to protect heat-vulnerable workers is critical. The objective of this paper is to describe the ways by which social and labor policies or programs, including healthcare access, home weatherization and energy assistance programs, neighborhood greening, workplace heat safety policies, paid leave, pregnancy accommodation laws, minimum wage laws, and collective bargaining, are important upstream determinants of worker heat vulnerability. Informed by the social ecological model and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's definition of climate vulnerability as being determined by exposure intensity, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, we synthesized literature on heat vulnerability, workplace heat safety policies, social and labor policies or programs and links to the determinants of heat vulnerability. Without broad access to social and labor policies and programs, both inside and outside the workplace, socioeconomic and racialized inequities in worker heat vulnerability will widen. Insights from this paper can inform an equity-focused research, policy and organizing agenda aimed at safeguarding workers against hot temperatures.