Heatwaves, Traumatic Injuries, and Barriers to Heat Safety Program Implementation

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dally, Miranda
• Description:
  As global temperatures continue to rise, environmental heat exposure has emerged as a safety concern for outdoor workers. While much focus has been placed on the agricultural industry, construction workers are also at risk. The goal of this project was to understand the association between temperature and risk of traumatic occupational injury among construction workers in Colorado. We also aimed to assess the current beliefs and practices around heat safety at construction sites in the state. Taking a mixed methods approach, we leveraged data from Pinnacol Assurance, a workers' compensation insurer in Colorado, and publicly accessible meteorological data to retrospectively assess the association between temperature and the risk of and cost of injury. We recruited four construction businesses in the state and conducted a needs assessment and interviews with owners/safety managers and workers to assess attitudes and practices around workplace heat safety. The findings of this study support previous research suggesting that heat acts as a hazard multiplier for injury. Importantly, this study identified key barriers to heat safety implementation in the workplace, including lack of knowledge and resources to address the danger. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Construction
  • Hot Temperatures
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • Construction workers
  • Traumatic injuries
  • Heat exposure
  • Intervention
  • Safety programs
  • Heat acclimatization
  • Hot environments
  • Outdoor workers
  • Safety culture
• Series:
  CPWR - Center for Construction Research and Training Publications
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; Denver Region OSHA ; Maryland ; Philadelphia Region OSHA
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  14 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20071793
• Citation:
  Silver Spring, MD: CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, 2025 Jun; :1-9
• Email:
  miranda.dally@cuanschutz.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2025
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  2009/09/01
• End Date:
  2024/08/31
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/260017/cdc_260017_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 510.54 KB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b6445fde1d6464b9eb8b6aa464e815aaa8b1c313622ad708e34fb1a7a76db086f860de32e9fb2ab2ccaefb9652ef7ef679ae5f52dc70cd15c9c22dbfc5a33f76