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 -