Impact of climate change on occupational health and productivity: a systematic literature review focusing on workplace heat

dc.contributor.authorLevi, Miriam
dc.contributor.authorKjellstrom, Tord
dc.contributor.authorBaldasseroni, Alberto
dc.date.accessioned2021-11-05T03:29:40Z
dc.date.available2021-11-05T03:29:40Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.date.updated2020-11-23T11:44:23Z
dc.description.abstractBackground: With climate change, mean annual air temperatures are getting hotter and extreme weather events will become more and more common in most parts of the world. Objectives: As part of the EU funded project HEAT-SHIELD we conducted a systematic review to summarize the epidemiological evidence of the effects of global warming-related heat exposure on workers’ health and productivity. Methods: Three separate searches, focused, respectively, on: i) heat-related illness (HRI), cardiovascular, respiratory and kidney diseases; ii) traumatic injuries; and iii) vector-borne diseases or vectors distribution, were conducted in PubMed. EMBASE was also consulted to retrieve relevant studies focused on the health effects of climate change. A fourth search strategy to assess the effects on work productivity was conducted both in PubMed and in the SCOPUS database. Results: A significant proportion of studies reported findings regarding the Mesoamerican nephropathy issue. This is a disease occurring especially among young and middle-aged male sugarcane workers, without conventional risk factors for chronic kidney disease. For injuries, there is a reversed U-shaped exposure-response relationship between Tmax and overall daily injury claims. Outdoor workers are at increased risk of vector-borne infectious diseases, as a positive correlation between higher air temperatures and current or future expansion of the habitat of vectors is being observed. As for productivity, agriculture and construction are the most studied sectors; a day with temperatures exceeding 32°C can reduce daily labour supply in exposed sectors by up to 14%. Conclusions: The present findings should inform development of further research and related health policies in the EU and beyond with regard to protecting working people from the effects of workplace heat during climate change.en_AU
dc.description.sponsorshipThis study has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 668786, as part of the Project “HEATSHIELD - Integrated inter-sector framework to increase the thermal resilience of European workers in the context of global warming”.en_AU
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_AU
dc.identifier.issn0025-7818en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/251608
dc.language.isoen_AUen_AU
dc.provenancehttps://www.mattioli1885journals.com/index.php/lamedicinadellavoro/about..."The nature of all our journals are open access, which means all the contents of the journals are accessible freely to all viewers from every part of the world as long as they have internet accessibility, our viewers are from all over the world." from the publisher site (as at 4 Nov 2021)en_AU
dc.publisherMattioli 1885 SpAen_AU
dc.rights© 2018 MATTIOLIen_AU
dc.sourceLa Medicina del Lavoroen_AU
dc.subjectClimate changeen_AU
dc.subjectheat-related illnessen_AU
dc.subjectoccupational diseasesen_AU
dc.subjectoccupational injuryen_AU
dc.subjectproductivityen_AU
dc.subjectvector-borne infectious diseasesen_AU
dc.titleImpact of climate change on occupational health and productivity: a systematic literature review focusing on workplace heaten_AU
dc.typeJournal articleen_AU
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Accessen_AU
local.bibliographicCitation.issue3en_AU
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage179en_AU
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage163en_AU
local.contributor.affiliationLevi, Miriam, CeRIMPen_AU
local.contributor.affiliationKjellstrom, Tord, College of Health and Medicine, ANUen_AU
local.contributor.affiliationBaldasseroni, Alberto, CeRIMPen_AU
local.contributor.authoremailrepository.admin@anu.edu.auen_AU
local.contributor.authoruidKjellstrom, Tord, u4046177en_AU
local.description.notesImported from ARIESen_AU
local.identifier.absfor040104 - Climate Change Processesen_AU
local.identifier.absfor111705 - Environmental and Occupational Health and Safetyen_AU
local.identifier.absseo960311 - Social Impacts of Climate Change and Variabilityen_AU
local.identifier.ariespublicationu4485658xPUB2027en_AU
local.identifier.citationvolume109en_AU
local.identifier.doi10.23749/mdl.v109i3.6851en_AU
local.identifier.scopusID2-s2.0-85049132965
local.identifier.thomsonID000436452000001
local.identifier.uidSubmittedByu4485658en_AU
local.publisher.urlhttps://www.mattioli1885journals.com/en_AU
local.type.statusPublished Versionen_AU

Downloads

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
01_Levi_Impact_of_climate_change_on_2018.pdf
Size:
1.15 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format