NIOSH topic page explores effect of climate change on occupational safety and health

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by Brianna Crandall — December 19, 2014—The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently launched a new Workplace Safety and Health Topics Web page focused on the relationship between occupational safety and health (OHS) and climate change, which, according to the agency, has the potential to affect worker health both directly and indirectly.

According to the Climate Change and Occupational Safety And Health topic page, “Although considerable research and planning with regard to climate change has dealt with public health and the environment, little of it has focused on the impact climate change will have on workers.”

NIOSH says the challenge is to research and characterize how these climate events may influence worker health and safety and to establish plans for mitigating, responding to, and adapting to current and anticipated health impacts, and lists currently available resources that can shed light on the subject.

The Climate Change: A Risk for Workers page notes that a number of both indoor and outdoor worker populations may be particularly vulnerable to threats from climate change, including emergency responders, health care workers, fire fighters, utility workers, farmers, and transportation workers. Climate change can also amplify existing health and safety issues, and may have an increased effect on economically and socially vulnerable worker populations such as migrant workers and day laborers with inadequate housing or other constraints.

According to the site, workers may be impacted directly by climate change-associated occupational hazards such as increased ambient temperatures, air pollution, and extreme weather, and indirectly from vector-borne diseases and expanded habitats, industrial transitions, emerging industries (e.g., renewable energy, carbon sequestration, and “green industries”), increased use of pesticides, and changes in the built environment.

The site lists related publications and resources, and gives information on NIOSH’s involvement with the topic, including forming the interdisciplinary NIOSH Climate Change Occupational Safety and Health (CCOSH) Work Group, which is working to determine OSH issues, identify gaps in worker protection, and make recommendations for worker safety and health improvements in regard to climate change.