The Effects of Climate Change on Occupational Safety and Health

Abstract

Climate change has far-reaching impacts not only on the ecosystems but on the astrosphere. Its effects on the astrosphere are multi-tiered from an entire nation down to individuals including the working population. It alters exposure to environmental hazards and the subsequent occupational risks. This review looks into how various aspects of climate change influence occupational safety and health, and provides recommendations for workplace adaptation. This review examines official data and peer-reviewed scholarly articles published in the past 15 to 20 years to draw the impacts and recommendations. It highlights the susceptibility of outdoor workers to heat and humidity caused by global warming and their works often require high physical demand and the wearing of personal protective clothing which exacerbate heat impacts. Excessive heat causes excessive sweating which could lead to dehydration and kidney disease. Mounting heat reduces working capacity and productivity besides increasing respiration rate hence exposure to chemicals through inhalation. Extreme weather events, particularly wildfires resulted from drought and increasing temperature present high occupational risk to firefighters and other outdoor workers in the wildfire zones, exposing them to extreme heat and numerous air pollutants. Global warming has been linked to increased lightning strikes and more severe heatwaves threatening workers. Flooding and more intense storms increase the occupational risks of those working on sea and in coastal areas. Climate change also alters the distribution and prevalence of disease vectors, creating new occupational risk. Adaptations should take into consideration climate change and workers’ protection in building designs, coastline protection and adaptive response. Keywords: Adaptation; Climate change; Extreme weather; Heat; Safety and health; Workplace