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Researchers at Academia Sinica collaborated with scientists from the Institute of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) of Taiwan and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA, to explore the heat stress and productivity loss of outdoor construction workers in hot and humid urban environments. We assessed the heat stress encountered by 101 workers at 10 construction sites in Taipei metropolitan area and estimated the associated productivity loss. We found that in labor-intensive industries such as construction, heat stress imposes a significant economic burden, with productivity losses ranging from 29% to 41.3% due to physical work capacity reduction resulting from heat stress, depending on the type of task. This means that under high-temperature conditions, workers' productivity can drop by nearly one-third to half. For example, if a worker normally carries 100 bricks per hour, heat stress may reduce their efficiency to 59–71 bricks per hour, causing delays, extending the project timeline, increasing costs, and potentially affecting the company's competitiveness.

This is one of the few studies to measure heat stress at a minute-level resolution and estimate productivity losses. It highlights the urgent need for the authorities to take appropriate measures to protect construction workers and minimize economic losses under climate change. The paper was published in Natural Cities. The IOSH, Taiwan, and the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health funded the research.