BACKGROUND:
Heat-related illness leads to $1billion in healthcare costs every summer (1). More than 2.4 billion workers worldwide are exposed to extreme heat annually. Almost 93% of Africa’s workforce is exposed to excessive heat (2). In 2020, exposure to excessive heat was linked to an estimated 22.85 million non-fatal occupational injuries, 18,970 deaths, and 2.09 million disability adjusted life years worldwide (2). By 2030, heat stress will reduce global GDP by USD 2,400billion (2). These figures hide the devastation brought by work-related heat: in several poorest regions of the world, these effects have reached epidemic proportions. Evidence from Latin America, India, Nepal and south-east Asia highlight the consequences of this changed world of work. In 2020, heat stress related chronic kidney disease was prevalent among 26.2 million people worldwide (2).

METHODS:
A novel researcher-worker paired panel discussion approach will be adopted. This pairing will consist of an international expert in the field of occupational heat exposure and health outcomes working in specific geographical location, together with a local worker from that location. The expert will address the research questions and the social impacts these raise, while the worker representative will describe the working conditions, potential for intervention and the social consequences at community levels of these hidden epidemics. The worker representative will share the reality and lived experiences of working in these extreme conditions.

RESULTS:
Team 1 (Jason Glaser/William Martinez) will address “The heat-related chronic kidney disease epidemic and the destruction of the social fabric of communities in Latin America”. Team 2 (Shailendra Sharma/Surendra Lama) will address how migrant workers from Nepal work in distant countries under extreme heat and return to their countries without any health care Team 3 (Rajen Naidoo/Patrick Ndlovu) will address “Heat and Health for Informal Workers in Durban, South Africa”