Heat Exposure and Injury Risk in Washington State Outdoor Construction Workers: A Case-Crossover Study Using High Resolution Meteorological Data and Workers’ Compensation Injury Claims

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bonauto, David ; Calkins M ; Hajat A ; Lieblich M ; Seixas, Noah S. ; Sheppard L ; Spector J
• Description:
  Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to assess the relationship between heat exposure and occupational injuries in construction workers. Methods: The relationship between maximum daily humidex, a measure of apparent temperature, and Washington State Fund workers' compensation injuries in outdoor construction workers was assessed using a case-crossover design with time-stratified referent selection. Warm month (March-October) adult outdoor construction traumatic injury claims from 2000-2012 were spatiotemporally joined with high-resolution meteorological data. Conditional logistic regression with linear splines was used to assess the association between maximum daily humidex and injuries. Results: There were 63,720 traumatic injuries during the study period. The traumatic injury odds ratio (OR) was 1.0053 (95% CI 1.003, 1.007) per one degree C change in humidex. In the splines analyses, we observed a nearly linear association between humidex and the risk of a traumatic injury. Stratified analyses suggested higher risk in younger (18-24 years) and older (over 54 years) workers, workers with lower extremity injuries, workers with less job experience, smaller employers, workers working in Western Washington, and time of injury before 12:30 pm. Conclusions: In this study of Washington outdoor construction workers, increasing maximum daily humidex was associated with increasing traumatic injury risk. Further work should explore mechanisms of the association between heat exposure and traumatic injuries. Injury prevention efforts in construction should address heat-related risk factors, particularly for high-risk workers. In addition, heat awareness campaigns should address outcomes beyond heat-related illness. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Hot Temperature Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Temperature
• Keywords:
  Construction Workers Heat Exposure Hot Environments Outdoor Workers Risk Factors Temperature Effects Traumatic Injuries
• Publisher:
  International Society of Exposure Science
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20063840
• Citation:
  International Society of Exposure Science - International Society for Environmental Epidemiology ISES-ISEE 2018 Joint Annual Meeting: Addressing Complex Local and Global Issues in Environmental Exposure and Health, August 26-30, 2018, Ottawa, Canada. Ottawa, Canada: International Society of Exposure Science, 2018 Aug; :O01.03.38
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2018
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  International Society of Exposure Science - International Society for Environmental Epidemiology ISES-ISEE 2018 Joint Annual Meeting: Addressing Complex Local and Global Issues in Environmental Exposure and Health, August 26-30, 2018, Ottawa, Canada
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d3fc57b1f4ff1714fa1ddc9f409e7a2a8b709dd6e29ed42180859083ab82fb4957746f3b0006e9f856bfdedc2fb431191c4da3d8b88f04e76e52812d0c2c0722
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/222387/cdc_222387_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.06 MB ]