title: Heat, Human Performance, and Occupational Health: A Key Issue for the Assessment of Global Climate Change Impacts.
abstract: Ambient heat exposure is a well-known health hazard, which reduces human performance and work capacity at heat levels already common in tropical and subtropical areas. Various health problems have been reported. Increasing heat exposure during the hottest seasons of each year is a key feature of global climate change. Heat exhaustion and reduced human performance are often overlooked in climate change health impact analysis. Later this century, many among the four billion people who live in hot areas worldwide will experience significantly reduced work capacity owing to climate change. In some areas, 30-40% of annual daylight hours will become too hot for work to be carried out. The social and economic impacts will be considerable, with global gross domestic product (GDP) losses greater than 20% by 2100. The analysis to date is piecemeal. More analysis of climate change-related occupational health impact assessments is greatly needed.
authors.affiliation: Health and Environment International Trust, Mapua, Nelson, 7005, New Zealand.|University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom; email: kjellstromt@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Tord
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kjellstrom
authors.affiliation: Ruby Coast Research Centre, Mapua, 7005, New Zealand.|Geography Department, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Briggs
authors.affiliation: Ruby Coast Research Centre, Mapua, 7005, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Freyberg
authors.affiliation: Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology, Nelson 7010, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lemke
authors.affiliation: Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology, Nelson 7010, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.affiliation: Ruby Coast Research Centre, Mapua, 7005, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Olivia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hyatt
mesh_terms: D057231:Climate Change; D059066:Gross Domestic Product; D018882:Heat Stress Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006358:Hot Temperature / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D016272:Occupational Health; D017132:Workplace
keywords: climate change; health impacts; human heat exposure; productivity; socioeconomic effects; work capacity