Work Adaptations Insufficient to Address Growing Heat Risk for U.S. Agricultural Workers

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Environ Res Lett
• Personal Author:
  Tigchelaar, Michelle ; Battisti, David S. ; Spector, June T.
• Description:
  The over one million agricultural workers in the United States (U.S.) are amongst the populations most vulnerable to the health impacts of extreme heat. Climate change will further increase this vulnerability. Here we estimate the magnitude and spatial patterns of the growing heat exposure and health risk faced by U.S. crop workers and assess the effect of workplace adaptations on mitigating that risk. We find that the average number of days spent working in unsafe conditions will double by mid-century, and, without mitigation, triple by the end of it. Increases in rest time and the availability of climate-controlled recovery areas can eliminate this risk but could affect farm productivity, farm worker earnings, and/or labor costs much more than alternative measures. Safeguarding the health and well-being of U.S. crop workers will therefore require systemic change beyond the worker and workplace level.
• Source:
  Environ Res Lett. 15(9)
• Pubmed ID:
  33133229
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC7594196
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  T42 OH008433/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U54 OH007544/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U54OH007544/ACL/ACL HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  15
• Issue:
  9
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:956ee73f29d05f4ef4876f2eddce2898bbd935cf29e0faa69472353946307ef8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/119633/cdc_119633_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.46 MB ]