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Impacts of Climate Change on Outdoor Workers and Their Safety: Some Research Priorities
The literature on the potential impacts of climate change on the health of outdoor workers has received limited attention as a whole, and in sub-Saharan African countries in particular. Yet, substantial numbers of workers are experiencing the health effects of elevated temperature, in combination wi...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6765781/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31533360 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183458 |
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author | Moda, Haruna M. Filho, Walter Leal Minhas, Aprajita |
author_facet | Moda, Haruna M. Filho, Walter Leal Minhas, Aprajita |
author_sort | Moda, Haruna M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The literature on the potential impacts of climate change on the health of outdoor workers has received limited attention as a whole, and in sub-Saharan African countries in particular. Yet, substantial numbers of workers are experiencing the health effects of elevated temperature, in combination with changes in precipitation patterns, climate extremes and the effects of air pollution, which have a potential impact on their safety and wellbeing. With increased temperatures within urban settlements and frequent heats waves, there has been a sudden rise in the occurrence of heat-related illness leading to higher levels of mortality, as well as other adverse health impacts. This paper discusses the impacts of extreme heat exposure and health concerns among outdoor workers, and the resultant impacts on their productivity and occupational safety in tropical developing countries with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, where there is a dearth of such studies. Aside from the direct effects caused by extreme heat exposure, other indirect health hazards associated with increasing heat among this group includes exposures to hazardous chemicals and other vector-borne diseases. In addition, reduced work capacity in heat-exposed jobs will continue to rise and hinder economic and social development in such countries. There is an urgent need for further studies around the health and economic impacts of climate change in the workplace, especially in tropical developing countries, which may guide the implementation of the measures needed to address the problem. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6765781 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-67657812019-09-30 Impacts of Climate Change on Outdoor Workers and Their Safety: Some Research Priorities Moda, Haruna M. Filho, Walter Leal Minhas, Aprajita Int J Environ Res Public Health Review The literature on the potential impacts of climate change on the health of outdoor workers has received limited attention as a whole, and in sub-Saharan African countries in particular. Yet, substantial numbers of workers are experiencing the health effects of elevated temperature, in combination with changes in precipitation patterns, climate extremes and the effects of air pollution, which have a potential impact on their safety and wellbeing. With increased temperatures within urban settlements and frequent heats waves, there has been a sudden rise in the occurrence of heat-related illness leading to higher levels of mortality, as well as other adverse health impacts. This paper discusses the impacts of extreme heat exposure and health concerns among outdoor workers, and the resultant impacts on their productivity and occupational safety in tropical developing countries with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, where there is a dearth of such studies. Aside from the direct effects caused by extreme heat exposure, other indirect health hazards associated with increasing heat among this group includes exposures to hazardous chemicals and other vector-borne diseases. In addition, reduced work capacity in heat-exposed jobs will continue to rise and hinder economic and social development in such countries. There is an urgent need for further studies around the health and economic impacts of climate change in the workplace, especially in tropical developing countries, which may guide the implementation of the measures needed to address the problem. MDPI 2019-09-17 2019-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6765781/ /pubmed/31533360 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183458 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Moda, Haruna M. Filho, Walter Leal Minhas, Aprajita Impacts of Climate Change on Outdoor Workers and Their Safety: Some Research Priorities |
title | Impacts of Climate Change on Outdoor Workers and Their Safety: Some Research Priorities |
title_full | Impacts of Climate Change on Outdoor Workers and Their Safety: Some Research Priorities |
title_fullStr | Impacts of Climate Change on Outdoor Workers and Their Safety: Some Research Priorities |
title_full_unstemmed | Impacts of Climate Change on Outdoor Workers and Their Safety: Some Research Priorities |
title_short | Impacts of Climate Change on Outdoor Workers and Their Safety: Some Research Priorities |
title_sort | impacts of climate change on outdoor workers and their safety: some research priorities |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6765781/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31533360 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183458 |
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