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Impacts of Climate Change and Heat Stress on Farmworkers' Health: A Scoping Review

Due to the continuous rise of global temperatures and heatwaves worldwide as a result of climate change, concerns for the health and safety of working populations have increased. Workers in the food production chain, particularly farmworkers, are especially vulnerable to heat stress due to the stren...

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Autores principales: El Khayat, Moussa, Halwani, Dana A., Hneiny, Layal, Alameddine, Ibrahim, Haidar, Mustapha A., Habib, Rima R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8861180/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35211437
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.782811
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author El Khayat, Moussa
Halwani, Dana A.
Hneiny, Layal
Alameddine, Ibrahim
Haidar, Mustapha A.
Habib, Rima R.
author_facet El Khayat, Moussa
Halwani, Dana A.
Hneiny, Layal
Alameddine, Ibrahim
Haidar, Mustapha A.
Habib, Rima R.
author_sort El Khayat, Moussa
collection PubMed
description Due to the continuous rise of global temperatures and heatwaves worldwide as a result of climate change, concerns for the health and safety of working populations have increased. Workers in the food production chain, particularly farmworkers, are especially vulnerable to heat stress due to the strenuous nature of their work, which is performed primarily outdoors under poor working conditions. At the cross-section of climate change and farmworkers' health, a scoping review was undertaken to summarize the existing knowledge regarding the health impacts associated with climate change and heat stress, guide future research toward better understanding current and future climate change risks, and inform policies to protect the health and safety of agricultural workers. A systematic search of 5 electronic databases and gray literature websites was conducted to identify relevant literature published up until December 2021. A total of 9045 records were retrieved from the searches, of which 92 articles were included in the final review. The majority of the reviewed articles focused on heat-related illnesses (n = 57) and kidney diseases (n = 28). The risk factors identified in the reviewed studies included gender, dehydration, heat strain, wearing inappropriate clothing, workload, piece-rate payment, job decision latitude, and hot environmental conditions. On the other hand, various protective and preventive factors were identified including drinking water, changing work hours and schedule of activities, wearing appropriate clothing, reducing soda consumption, taking breaks in shaded or air-conditioned areas, and increasing electrolyte consumption in addition to improving access to medical care. This review also identified various factors that are unique to vulnerable agricultural populations, including migrant and child farmworkers. Our findings call for an urgent need to expand future research on vulnerable agricultural communities including migrant workers so as to develop effective policies and interventions that can protect these communities from the effects of heat stress.
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spelling pubmed-88611802022-02-23 Impacts of Climate Change and Heat Stress on Farmworkers' Health: A Scoping Review El Khayat, Moussa Halwani, Dana A. Hneiny, Layal Alameddine, Ibrahim Haidar, Mustapha A. Habib, Rima R. Front Public Health Public Health Due to the continuous rise of global temperatures and heatwaves worldwide as a result of climate change, concerns for the health and safety of working populations have increased. Workers in the food production chain, particularly farmworkers, are especially vulnerable to heat stress due to the strenuous nature of their work, which is performed primarily outdoors under poor working conditions. At the cross-section of climate change and farmworkers' health, a scoping review was undertaken to summarize the existing knowledge regarding the health impacts associated with climate change and heat stress, guide future research toward better understanding current and future climate change risks, and inform policies to protect the health and safety of agricultural workers. A systematic search of 5 electronic databases and gray literature websites was conducted to identify relevant literature published up until December 2021. A total of 9045 records were retrieved from the searches, of which 92 articles were included in the final review. The majority of the reviewed articles focused on heat-related illnesses (n = 57) and kidney diseases (n = 28). The risk factors identified in the reviewed studies included gender, dehydration, heat strain, wearing inappropriate clothing, workload, piece-rate payment, job decision latitude, and hot environmental conditions. On the other hand, various protective and preventive factors were identified including drinking water, changing work hours and schedule of activities, wearing appropriate clothing, reducing soda consumption, taking breaks in shaded or air-conditioned areas, and increasing electrolyte consumption in addition to improving access to medical care. This review also identified various factors that are unique to vulnerable agricultural populations, including migrant and child farmworkers. Our findings call for an urgent need to expand future research on vulnerable agricultural communities including migrant workers so as to develop effective policies and interventions that can protect these communities from the effects of heat stress. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8861180/ /pubmed/35211437 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.782811 Text en Copyright © 2022 El Khayat, Halwani, Hneiny, Alameddine, Haidar and Habib. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
El Khayat, Moussa
Halwani, Dana A.
Hneiny, Layal
Alameddine, Ibrahim
Haidar, Mustapha A.
Habib, Rima R.
Impacts of Climate Change and Heat Stress on Farmworkers' Health: A Scoping Review
title Impacts of Climate Change and Heat Stress on Farmworkers' Health: A Scoping Review
title_full Impacts of Climate Change and Heat Stress on Farmworkers' Health: A Scoping Review
title_fullStr Impacts of Climate Change and Heat Stress on Farmworkers' Health: A Scoping Review
title_full_unstemmed Impacts of Climate Change and Heat Stress on Farmworkers' Health: A Scoping Review
title_short Impacts of Climate Change and Heat Stress on Farmworkers' Health: A Scoping Review
title_sort impacts of climate change and heat stress on farmworkers' health: a scoping review
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8861180/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35211437
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.782811
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