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A pilot field evaluation on heat stress in sugarcane workers in Costa Rica: What to do next?

BACKGROUND: Climate change is producing major impacts including increasing temperatures in tropical countries, like Costa Rica, where the sugarcane industry employs thousands of workers who are exposed to extreme heat. OBJECTIVES: This article outlines a pilot qualitative evaluation of working condi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Crowe, Jennifer, van Wendel de Joode, Berna, Wesseling, Catharina
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: CoAction Publishing 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799305/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20052430
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v2i0.2062
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author Crowe, Jennifer
van Wendel de Joode, Berna
Wesseling, Catharina
author_facet Crowe, Jennifer
van Wendel de Joode, Berna
Wesseling, Catharina
author_sort Crowe, Jennifer
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Climate change is producing major impacts including increasing temperatures in tropical countries, like Costa Rica, where the sugarcane industry employs thousands of workers who are exposed to extreme heat. OBJECTIVES: This article outlines a pilot qualitative evaluation of working conditions and heat in the sugarcane industry. DESIGN: A literature review, direct observations and exploratory interviews with workers were conducted to reach a preliminary understanding of the dimensions of heat-related health issues in the sugarcane industry, as a basis for the design of future studies. RESULTS: The industry employs temporary workers from Nicaragua and Costa Rica as well as year-round employees. Temporary employees work 12-hour shifts during the harvest and processing (‘zafra’) season. In many cases, sugarcane field workers are required to carry their own water and often have no access to shade. Sugar mill workers are exposed to different levels of heat stress depending upon their job tasks, with the most intense heat and workload experienced by the oven (‘caldera’) cleaners. CONCLUSIONS: Research is needed to achieve better understanding of the multiple factors driving and interacting with heat exposures in the sugarcane industry in order to improve the health and safety of workers while maintaining worker productivity.
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spelling pubmed-27993052010-01-05 A pilot field evaluation on heat stress in sugarcane workers in Costa Rica: What to do next? Crowe, Jennifer van Wendel de Joode, Berna Wesseling, Catharina Glob Health Action Heat, work and health: implications of climate change BACKGROUND: Climate change is producing major impacts including increasing temperatures in tropical countries, like Costa Rica, where the sugarcane industry employs thousands of workers who are exposed to extreme heat. OBJECTIVES: This article outlines a pilot qualitative evaluation of working conditions and heat in the sugarcane industry. DESIGN: A literature review, direct observations and exploratory interviews with workers were conducted to reach a preliminary understanding of the dimensions of heat-related health issues in the sugarcane industry, as a basis for the design of future studies. RESULTS: The industry employs temporary workers from Nicaragua and Costa Rica as well as year-round employees. Temporary employees work 12-hour shifts during the harvest and processing (‘zafra’) season. In many cases, sugarcane field workers are required to carry their own water and often have no access to shade. Sugar mill workers are exposed to different levels of heat stress depending upon their job tasks, with the most intense heat and workload experienced by the oven (‘caldera’) cleaners. CONCLUSIONS: Research is needed to achieve better understanding of the multiple factors driving and interacting with heat exposures in the sugarcane industry in order to improve the health and safety of workers while maintaining worker productivity. CoAction Publishing 2009-11-11 /pmc/articles/PMC2799305/ /pubmed/20052430 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v2i0.2062 Text en © 2009 Jennifer Crowe et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Heat, work and health: implications of climate change
Crowe, Jennifer
van Wendel de Joode, Berna
Wesseling, Catharina
A pilot field evaluation on heat stress in sugarcane workers in Costa Rica: What to do next?
title A pilot field evaluation on heat stress in sugarcane workers in Costa Rica: What to do next?
title_full A pilot field evaluation on heat stress in sugarcane workers in Costa Rica: What to do next?
title_fullStr A pilot field evaluation on heat stress in sugarcane workers in Costa Rica: What to do next?
title_full_unstemmed A pilot field evaluation on heat stress in sugarcane workers in Costa Rica: What to do next?
title_short A pilot field evaluation on heat stress in sugarcane workers in Costa Rica: What to do next?
title_sort pilot field evaluation on heat stress in sugarcane workers in costa rica: what to do next?
topic Heat, work and health: implications of climate change
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799305/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20052430
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v2i0.2062
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