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Climate Change and the Amplification of Agricultural Worker Health Risks



Details

  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    Work in agriculture is hard, and it is about to get harder. Hired farm labor is a form of highly precarious employment, due to various contingencies, with significant degrees of insecurity and poorly paid wages. Work schedules and hours can also vary unpredictably for which workers have little control. Most hired farm work in the United States is now done by immigrants, with seven of ten born in Mexico and an additional 6% migrating from Central America. The majority have arrived since 2000. Many are without documentation and less than half have health insurance. Climate change can be seen as a process that amplifies health risks in agriculture, along with creating new hazards for certain worker populations. Climate change is associated with higher temperatures in the Western United States, leading to a higher frequency of extreme heat days. Extreme heat can have serious consequences for agricultural workers, including heat-related illness, increased risk of injuries, and long-term chronic health effects. Climate change can also increase the probability of catastrophic events such as wildfires. Amplification of worker health risks due to climate is clearly discernible today. Our session at the Western States Agricultural Safety and Health Conference explored how: 1) changes in climate are affecting outdoor work; 2) what adaptive strategies for climate change are available; 3) the acute and chronic health effects of extreme heat; and 4) the health impacts to agricultural workers due to air pollution from wildfires. [Description provided by NIOSH]
  • Subjects:
  • Keywords:
  • ISSN:
    1059-924X
  • Document Type:
    Text
  • Funding:
    Cooperative Agreement
  • Genre:
    Journal Article
  • Place as Subject:
  • CIO:
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
  • Topic:
    Workplace Safety & Health
  • Location:
    North America
  • Pages in Document:
    15-17
  • Volume:
    26
  • Issue:
    1
  • NIOSHTIC Number:
    nn:20070688
  • Citation:
    J Agromedicine 2021 Jan; 26(1):15-17
  • Contact Point Address:
    Richard A. Fenske, Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
  • Email:
    rfenske@uw.edu
  • Federal Fiscal Year:
    2021
  • NORA Priority Area:
    Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
  • Performing Organization:
    University of Washington
  • Peer Reviewed:
    False
  • Start Date:
    20010930
  • Source Full Name:
    Journal of Agromedicine
  • End Date:
    20270929
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:248fad29c4cf2e6db0f5384b0d01e7d447a8e2320c94efdd10228ad2ec90a47c0c1c56f054d235d9251dfaf9a4c8c679c625132e143fa76c978ccdf1fd72f68a
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 553.52 KB ]
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