Climate Change and Occupational Safety and Health: Establishing a Preliminary Framework

Abstract

The relationship between global climate change and occupational safety and health has not been extensively characterized. To begin such an effort, it may be useful to develop a framework for identifying how climate change could affect the workplace; workers; and occupational morbidity, mortality, and injury. This article develops such a framework based on a review of the published scientific literature from 1988–2008 that includes climatic effects, their interaction with occupational hazards, and their manifestation in the working population. Seven categories of climate-related hazards are identified: (1) increased ambient temperature, (2) air pollution, (3) ultraviolet exposure, (4) extreme weather, (5) vector-borne diseases and expanded habitats, (6) industrial transitions and emerging industries; and (7) changes in the built environment. This review indicates that while climate change may result in increasing the prevalence, distribution, and severity of known occupational hazards, there is no evidence of unique or previously unknown hazards. However, such a possibility should not be excluded, since there is potential for interactions of known hazards and new conditions leading to new hazards and risks.

Keywords:

• biological hazards
• climate change
• heat stress
• UV radiation
• worker health

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank the following for reviewers of previous drafts: Richard Niemeier, Brenda Jacklitsch, George Conway, Marie O'Neill, Michael Behm, Geoffrey Lomax, John Gambatese, Richard Ehrenberg, and Jennifer Donaldson, and Anne Stirnkorb for graphics.

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.