Abstract
Climate change will increase the frequency and severity of hazard events such as heat waves, with important effects in several European regions. It is of importance to consider overall effects as well as specific impact on vulnerable population groups such as outdoor workers. The agricultural and construction sectors represent two strategic occupational fields that in relatively recent years involve an increasing number of migrant workers, and therefore require a better management of cultural aspects, that may interact with and impact on heat-related health risk. For this reason, the present study evaluated heat-stress perception and management among native and immigrant workers in Europe. As part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 HEAT-SHIELD project (grant agreement No. 668786), two agricultural and one construction companies, traditionally employing migrant workers, were evaluated with a questionnaire survey during the summer months of 2017. The data collected (104 case studies) were analyzed using descriptive statistics (Chi-squared tests) and the analysis of variance was performed with ANOVA test. From the results, migrant workers declared that work required greater effort than do native Italian workers (χ2 = 17.1, p = 0.001) but reported less impact from heat on productivity (χ2 = 10.6; p = 0.014) and thermal discomfort. In addition, migrant workers were mainly informed through written or oral communications, while native workers received information on heat-health issues through training courses. These findings are of importance for future information and mitigation actions to address socio-cultural gaps and reduce heat-stress vulnerability.
Highlights
Numerous studies have documented that the human-induced climate change has increased the frequency and severity of hazard events such as heat waves across the globe and recent studies evidenced that several areas of Europe are at high risk [1,2,3,4]
The main aim of this study is to investigate how cultural aspects can influence heat-stress perception and management among native and immigrant workers, in order to inform health care decision making aimed at reducing socio-cultural gaps and their influences on heat-stress vulnerability
The different perception of job risk, linguistic barriers and cultural factors that reduce the effectiveness of any training, make migrant workers probably less able to negotiate the type of tasks they perform than native workers [32]
Summary
Numerous studies have documented that the human-induced climate change has increased the frequency and severity of hazard events such as heat waves across the globe and recent studies evidenced that several areas of Europe are at high risk [1,2,3,4]. Besides the Mediterranean region, several Western European regions and the Balkans could see increases of heat wave intensity in the 21st century [5,6,7]. Occupational exposures to high temperatures without sufficient protection may increase the risk of heat-related illnesses and injuries [10], in particular for outdoor workers. Agriculture and construction sectors are the most exposed and are characterized by a high number of migrant workers with cultural aspects (religious, linguistic, adaptation) that contribute to further increase the risk [11]
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