Climate Change and Occupational Heat Problems

Abstract

In many parts of the world ongoing climate change during the last three decades has produced higher temperatures and occupational heat stress levels in both outdoor and indoor workplaces 1,2) . Working people are particularly exposed to these heating trends in tropical and sub-tropical countries, where excessive workplace heat exposures linked to the outdoor ambient thermal environment are a traditional part of local life, but heat waves in cooler countries are also affecting workers health and productivity 3) .Outdoor work is avoided by local people during the hottest part of the days in the hot season, as the heat stress from air temperature, humidity and wind, and the additional heat load from solar heat radiation, overwhelms the human physiological capacity to maintain thermal balance 4) . High workplace heat exposure is connected to various clinical effects and also to increased incidence of occupational injuries 5) .The notion that indoor workers are generally sufficiently protected via air conditioning, fans or other cooling systems does not apply to most industrial workplaces in low and middle income countries in hot parts of the world 6,7) . These are the countries where most of the global population lives. Rapid urbanization in Asia, Africa and Latin America adds to the local heat exposures via great amounts of construction work 8) and the Urban Heat Island effect 9) .The lack of technical protection against heat is an important threat to the health and productivity in workplaces. Future climate change will make this situation worse for millions, and maybe even billions, of working people 10) .Daily life non-work activities are also affected by high heat exposures, and for most poor people there is no distinction between work and daily chores. This special issue of Industrial Health presents papers on different aspects of occupational heat problems in relation to climate change. The papers present examples from different parts of the world, and highlight methods for heat exposure assessment 11) , standards for occupational heat exposures 12,13) , and the health and productivity risks of workplace heat in relation to climate conditions and climate change 14) . A small scientific conference on "Occu- Tord KJELLSTROM

Air temperature exposure and agricultural occupational injuries in the Autonomous Province of Trento (2000–2013, North-Eastern Italy)

“…In certain occupational settings, heat exposure would represent an even greater challenge [5,14] because of a combination of external thermal environment, heat sources in the workplace, and internal heat generation by strenuous physical activity through muscular work [15][16][17]. Evidence suggests that the exposure to high environmental temperatures not only affects workers' capability to undertake physical activities without harm, especially in subjects with pre-existing illnesses [2,5,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24] but high temperatures would significantly hamper cognition and concentration of the workers, reducing vigilance and increasing fatigue: as a consequence, working during warm weather would also ultimately increase the risk of mistakes, accidents and occupational injuries (OIs) [14,[25][26][27][28][29].…”

“…Hence, many AWs may continue to work beyond a safe heat exposure limit as they are unaware of the risks associated with the heat exposure or have inappropriate knowledge of the preventive measures, as avoiding the hottest hours of the day for most strenuous physical exertion or increasing the water intake, in particular during the HWs [13,30]. As climate change effects gradually progress, the importance of understanding the impact of hot climate on injuries in AWs and preventing them through appropriate preparedness and emergency response plans in the workplace has become a growing challenge for occupational health and safety [2,16,28,36]. However, despite 4.6% of the total European Union workforce is still engaged in the agricultural sector, little data is available from Western Europe, and more specifically its Alpine regions, where a significant percentage share of the general population is still employed in the primary sector, with a high ratio of self-employed farmers, and where the occupational health and safety preventive practices are strictly regulated [5,30,[37][38][39][40].…”

Risk Factors for Heat-Related Illness in Washington Crop Workers

“…3 The risk of HRI is expected to increase over time as the frequency and severity of heat events increases. 4–6 …”

Association between air temperatures and occupational injuries: a case-crossover analysis using workers’ compensation claims data in the construction industries in Northern Italy

“…The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated in 0.78°C the increase of the average global temperature between 2003 and 2012 (4), with an even higher risk for population exposed to Mediterranean-like climates (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Because of a combination of external thermal environment, heat sources in the workplace, and internal heat generation by physical activity associated with strenuous muscular work, climate changes and eventual heat exposure represent an even greater challenge to workers' health and safety, especially in persons with pre-existing illnesses (2,7,(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28). The risk of heat-related health effects appears significantly increased in outdoors workers, including construction workers (CW), for several reasons (1, 3,18,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36].…”