Heat Illnesses and Injuries
Because construction workers often do tasks/work that require prolonged physical exertion in hot or humid conditions, they are disproportionately impacted by heat stress. One in three heat-related fatal injuries in 2023 occurred among construction workers.
This dashboard examines heat-related injuries and illnesses among workers in all industries and construction across multiple data sources. This dashboard includes two dashboard-level filters, Year and InjuryType, that update the charts and the bolded and underlined key findings. The heat-related injuries presented are likely to be an undercount, as underreporting of these injuries is well documented and the data do not account for injuries resulting from heat exposure (e.g., falls).
Following the interactive dashboard, you will find more information on the data sources, definitions, chart notes, a downloadable data file, and recommended citation.
If you have any questions or comments, please email [email protected].
About the Data
OSHA, Severe Injury Reports. www.osha.gov/severeinjury.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 2011-2023 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) Public and Restricted Use Data. www.bls.gov/.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 2011-2022 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). www.bls.gov/.
Definitions and Chart Notes
Definitions
- Full-time equivalent worker (FTEs) – Determined by the hours worked per employee on a full-time basis, defined as working 2,000 hours (40 hours x 50 weeks) per year.
- Heat-related illness or injury – An illness or injury resulting from exposure to heat. Illnesses included things like heat stroke, heat exhaustion, while injuries refer to traumatic injuries where heat was a contributing factor.
- CFOI/SOII – Injuries with event/exposure defined as “Exposure to Environmental Heat.” Includes the following conditions: Heat exhaustion, heat stroke, hyperthermia, or fatigue from high temperatures in any work environment; working around furnaces, kilns or other heat producing equipment without direct contact with hot objects. Except for fatal injuries in 2019, 2021, and 2023 which use primary source due to missing event/exposure data.
- OSHA Severe Injury – Injuries in construction (NAICS 23) were manually reviewed and classified as heat-related based on the presence of a heat-related word (e.g., heat exhaustion, overheated, temperature) or a heat-related event/exposure, primary source, or nature code. Email [email protected] for more information.
Chart Notes
- Rates for Fatal and Nonfatal injuries across years calculated as Number of Heat Injuries Across Years/Number of Workers Across Years.
- Nonfatal injuries are for private industry workers.
- Nonfatal injuries (SOII) are shown using biennial years due to BLS switching to biennial data for 2021-2022 data.
- OSHA Severe Injury reports are only for states under federal OSHA jurisdiction.
Recommended Citation and Data File
Recommended Citation
CPWR–The Center for Construction Research and Training. [2025]. Heat Injuries and Illnesses [dashboard].
Data File
The Data File provides aggregate data for heat injuries and illnesses as shown on the dashboard. Rates across years for the second chart can be requested by emailing [email protected].