Escalating environmental summer heat exposure — a future threat for the European workforce
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Escalating environmental summer heat exposure — a future threat for the European workforce. / Casanueva, Ana; Kotlarski, Sven; Fischer, Andreas M; Flouris, Andreas D; Kjellstrom, Tord; Lemke, Bruno; Nybo, Lars; Schwierz, Cornelia; Liniger, Mark A.
In: Regional Environmental Change, Vol. 20, No. 2, 40, 2020.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Escalating environmental summer heat exposure — a future threat for the European workforce
AU - Casanueva, Ana
AU - Kotlarski, Sven
AU - Fischer, Andreas M
AU - Flouris, Andreas D
AU - Kjellstrom, Tord
AU - Lemke, Bruno
AU - Nybo, Lars
AU - Schwierz, Cornelia
AU - Liniger, Mark A
N1 - CURIS 2020 NEXS 143
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Heat exposure constitutes a major threat for European workers, with significant impacts on the workers’ health and productivity. Climate projections over the next decades show a continuous and accelerated warming over Europe together with longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves on regional and local scales. In this work, we assess the increased risk in future occupational heat stress levels using the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), an index adopted by the International Standards Organization as regulatory index to measure the heat exposure of working people. Our results show that, in large parts of Europe, future heat exposure will indeed exceed critical levels for physically active humans far more often than in today’s climate, and labour productivity might be largely reduced in southern Europe. European industries should adapt to the projected changes to prevent major consequences for the workers’ health and to preserve economic productivity.
AB - Heat exposure constitutes a major threat for European workers, with significant impacts on the workers’ health and productivity. Climate projections over the next decades show a continuous and accelerated warming over Europe together with longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves on regional and local scales. In this work, we assess the increased risk in future occupational heat stress levels using the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), an index adopted by the International Standards Organization as regulatory index to measure the heat exposure of working people. Our results show that, in large parts of Europe, future heat exposure will indeed exceed critical levels for physically active humans far more often than in today’s climate, and labour productivity might be largely reduced in southern Europe. European industries should adapt to the projected changes to prevent major consequences for the workers’ health and to preserve economic productivity.
KW - Climate change
KW - Heat exposure
KW - Heat stress
KW - Labour productivity
KW - Wet bulb globe temperature
U2 - 10.1007/s10113-020-01625-6
DO - 10.1007/s10113-020-01625-6
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85082314501
VL - 20
JO - Regional Environmental Change
JF - Regional Environmental Change
SN - 1436-3798
IS - 2
M1 - 40
ER -
ID: 241047530