Association Between Work‐Related Hyperthermia Emergency Department Visits and Ambient Heat in Five Southeastern States, 2010–2012—A Case‐Crossover Study

Autor: Ambarish Vaidyanathan, Michelle Lackovic, Jeffrey D. Shire, Terry L. Bunn
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Hyperthermia
Informatics
Persistence
Memory
Correlations
Clustering
Epidemiology
heat stress disorders
lcsh:Environmental protection
Health
Toxicology and Mutagenesis
ambient temperature
primary prevention
Management
Monitoring
Policy and Law
Work related
Occupational safety and health
Extreme Events
Environmental health
Medicine
lcsh:TD169-171.8
Public Issues
Statistical methods: Inferential
Mean radiant temperature
Waste Management and Disposal
Research Articles
Water Science and Technology
Global and Planetary Change
Heat index
business.industry
extreme heat
Public Health
Environmental and Occupational Health
Heat Stress Disorders
case‐crossover
Emergency department
medicine.disease
Pollution
Crossover study
Statistical Analysis
North America
workers
Workforce
Geographic Location
Hydrology
business
Mathematical Geophysics
Health Impact
Natural Hazards
Research Article
Zdroj: GeoHealth, Vol 4, Iss 8, Pp n/a-n/a (2020)
GeoHealth
ISSN: 2471-1403
DOI: 10.1029/2019gh000241
Popis: The objective of this study is to assess ambient temperatures' and extreme heat events' contribution to work‐related emergency department (ED) visits for hyperthermia in the southeastern United States to inform prevention. Through a collaborative network and established data framework, work‐related ED hyperthermia visits in five participating southeastern U.S. states were analyzed using a time stratified case‐crossover design. For exposure metrics, day‐ and location‐specific measures of ambient temperatures and county‐specific identification of extreme heat events were used. From 2010 to 2012, 5,017 work‐related hyperthermia ED visits were seen; 2,298 (~46%) of these visits occurred on days when the daily maximum heat index was at temperatures the Occupational Safety and Health Administration designates as having “lower” or “moderate” heat risk. A 14% increase in risk of ED visit was seen for a 1°F increase in average daily mean temperature, modeled as linear predictor across all temperatures. A 54% increase in risk was seen for work‐related hyperthermia ED visits during extreme heat events (two or more consecutive days of unusually high temperatures) when controlling for average daily mean temperature. Despite ambient heat being a well‐known risk to workers' health, this study's findings indicate ambient heat contributed to work‐related ED hyperthermia visits in these five states. Used alone, existing OSHA heat‐risk levels for ambient temperatures did not appear to successfully communicate workers' risk for hyperthermia in this study. Findings should inform future heat‐alert communications and policies, heat prevention efforts, and heat‐illness prevention research for workers in the southeastern United States.
Key Points Workers being overexposed to heat has been shown to be a serious problem in the subtropical climate of the southeastern United StatesAlmost half of the 5,017 work‐related emergency department hyperthermia visits in this study occurred on days with a heat index at “low” or “moderate” heat riskAppropriate heat‐alert thresholds and the timely and effective communication of heat risks to workers should be utilized to prevent workers from hyperthermia
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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