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Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and Recorded Occupational Injury Rates among Sugarcane Harvesters in Southwest Guatemala

As global temperatures continue to rise it is imperative to understand the adverse effects this will pose to workers laboring outdoors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between increases in wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and risk of occupational injury or dehydration...

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Autores principales: Dally, Miranda, Butler-Dawson, Jaime, Sorensen, Cecilia J., Van Dyke, Mike, James, Katherine A., Krisher, Lyndsay, Jaramillo, Diana, Newman, Lee S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7664243/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33171945
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17218195
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author Dally, Miranda
Butler-Dawson, Jaime
Sorensen, Cecilia J.
Van Dyke, Mike
James, Katherine A.
Krisher, Lyndsay
Jaramillo, Diana
Newman, Lee S.
author_facet Dally, Miranda
Butler-Dawson, Jaime
Sorensen, Cecilia J.
Van Dyke, Mike
James, Katherine A.
Krisher, Lyndsay
Jaramillo, Diana
Newman, Lee S.
author_sort Dally, Miranda
collection PubMed
description As global temperatures continue to rise it is imperative to understand the adverse effects this will pose to workers laboring outdoors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between increases in wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and risk of occupational injury or dehydration among agricultural workers. We used data collected by an agribusiness in Southwest Guatemala over the course of four harvest seasons and Poisson generalized linear modelling for this analysis. Our analyses suggest a 3% increase in recorded injury risk with each degree increase in daily average WBGT above 30 °C (95% CI: −6%, 14%). Additionally, these data suggest that the relationship between WBGT and injury risk is non-linear with an additional 4% acceleration in risk for every degree increase in WBGT above 30 °C (95% CI: 0%, 8%). No relationship was found between daily average WBGT and risk of dehydration. Our results indicate that agricultural workers are at an increased risk of occupational injury in humid and hot environments and that businesses need to plan and adapt to increasing global temperatures by implementing and evaluating effective occupational safety and health programs to protect the health, safety, and well-being of their workers.
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spelling pubmed-76642432020-11-14 Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and Recorded Occupational Injury Rates among Sugarcane Harvesters in Southwest Guatemala Dally, Miranda Butler-Dawson, Jaime Sorensen, Cecilia J. Van Dyke, Mike James, Katherine A. Krisher, Lyndsay Jaramillo, Diana Newman, Lee S. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article As global temperatures continue to rise it is imperative to understand the adverse effects this will pose to workers laboring outdoors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between increases in wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and risk of occupational injury or dehydration among agricultural workers. We used data collected by an agribusiness in Southwest Guatemala over the course of four harvest seasons and Poisson generalized linear modelling for this analysis. Our analyses suggest a 3% increase in recorded injury risk with each degree increase in daily average WBGT above 30 °C (95% CI: −6%, 14%). Additionally, these data suggest that the relationship between WBGT and injury risk is non-linear with an additional 4% acceleration in risk for every degree increase in WBGT above 30 °C (95% CI: 0%, 8%). No relationship was found between daily average WBGT and risk of dehydration. Our results indicate that agricultural workers are at an increased risk of occupational injury in humid and hot environments and that businesses need to plan and adapt to increasing global temperatures by implementing and evaluating effective occupational safety and health programs to protect the health, safety, and well-being of their workers. MDPI 2020-11-06 2020-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7664243/ /pubmed/33171945 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17218195 Text en © 2020 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 Article
Dally, Miranda
Butler-Dawson, Jaime
Sorensen, Cecilia J.
Van Dyke, Mike
James, Katherine A.
Krisher, Lyndsay
Jaramillo, Diana
Newman, Lee S.
Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and Recorded Occupational Injury Rates among Sugarcane Harvesters in Southwest Guatemala
title Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and Recorded Occupational Injury Rates among Sugarcane Harvesters in Southwest Guatemala
title_full Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and Recorded Occupational Injury Rates among Sugarcane Harvesters in Southwest Guatemala
title_fullStr Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and Recorded Occupational Injury Rates among Sugarcane Harvesters in Southwest Guatemala
title_full_unstemmed Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and Recorded Occupational Injury Rates among Sugarcane Harvesters in Southwest Guatemala
title_short Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and Recorded Occupational Injury Rates among Sugarcane Harvesters in Southwest Guatemala
title_sort wet bulb globe temperature and recorded occupational injury rates among sugarcane harvesters in southwest guatemala
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7664243/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33171945
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17218195
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