But merely counting deaths from heat risks missing its impact on human life. Each heat dome in the U.S. affected over 100 million people. Among them were construction workers, outdoor workers, delivery workers in unairconditioned cabs, farm workers, the unhoused, the poor who could not afford air conditioning, those on medications on whom the impact of heat was amplified, those with mental health disorders, and those with little or no access to healthcare.
According to the International Labor Organization, billions of workers around the world are exposed to extreme heat every year. While the vast majority of them do not die, many suffer deeply from the arduous ignominy of a life exposed to heat, day and night, year after year.
While counting deaths from heat is an imperfect science, the quantification of heat’s impact on mental health, physical well-being, wages, food security, habitat, and infrastructure is even more complex. One thousand women working in India’s informal labor economy have set out to quantify this burden—to understand what impact the heat and humidity in their lived environments at home and at work have on their health, wages, and well-being.