High levels of heat stress among sugarcane workers in Thailand.

IF 1.8 4区医学 Q3 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Annals Of Work Exposures and Health Pub Date : 2025-02-03 DOI:10.1093/annweh/wxaf002

Tadpong Tantipanjaporn, Andrew Povey, Holly A Shiels, Martie van Tongeren

{"title":"High levels of heat stress among sugarcane workers in Thailand.","authors":"Tadpong Tantipanjaporn, Andrew Povey, Holly A Shiels, Martie van Tongeren","doi":"10.1093/annweh/wxaf002","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Objectives: With continued global warming, the effects of elevated temperatures on the health of agricultural workers are a particular concern. This study characterized the levels of heat stress in Thai sugarcane workers and investigated whether season and harvesting method were associated with it.Methods: Three hundred sugarcane workers in Nakhon Sawan Province, Thailand, were recruited, and information on demographics, working conditions, and clothing characteristics was collected from participants during the cooler months (n = 152 participants, mid-January to mid-February) and hotter month (n = 148, March). Heat stress was measured using the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) index, and the WBGT instruments were operated for a full work shift in the sugarcane fields where the participants worked. One-hour time weighted average (TWA) effective WBGT (WBGTeff-1hrTWA) estimates were determined for different times of the day based on the measured WBGT and clothing adjustment factor.Results: The average WBGTeff-1hrTWA in the cooler months ranged from 22.5 °C during the early morning to 31.3 °C during the hottest time of the day, and for the hotter month, it ranged from 25.4 °C to 33.9 °C, respectively. The measured WBGT, natural wet-bulb temperature (Tnwb), dry-bulb temperature (Tdb), globe temperature (Tg), air velocity (Av), and absolute water vapor pressure (ea) were all statistically significantly higher in the hotter month than in the cooler months. Harvesting during the hotter month and harvesting burnt sugarcane were significantly associated with increased effective WBGT. The harvesters' heat stress in both seasons exceeded the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists - Threshold limit value for 72.7% of the working time in the cooler months and 90.9% in the hotter month.Conclusions: The heat stress in Thai sugarcane workers was high in both seasons, particularly in the hotter month and when harvesting burnt sugarcane. This results in a very high risk of developing heat-related health effects, and measures are needed to reduce heat stress. Heat stress in agricultural and other outdoor work in tropical climates is an immediate and growing problem.","PeriodicalId":8362,"journal":{"name":"Annals Of Work Exposures and Health","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annals Of Work Exposures and Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxaf002","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives: With continued global warming, the effects of elevated temperatures on the health of agricultural workers are a particular concern. This study characterized the levels of heat stress in Thai sugarcane workers and investigated whether season and harvesting method were associated with it.

Methods: Three hundred sugarcane workers in Nakhon Sawan Province, Thailand, were recruited, and information on demographics, working conditions, and clothing characteristics was collected from participants during the cooler months (n = 152 participants, mid-January to mid-February) and hotter month (n = 148, March). Heat stress was measured using the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) index, and the WBGT instruments were operated for a full work shift in the sugarcane fields where the participants worked. One-hour time weighted average (TWA) effective WBGT (WBGTeff-1hrTWA) estimates were determined for different times of the day based on the measured WBGT and clothing adjustment factor.

Results: The average WBGTeff-1hrTWA in the cooler months ranged from 22.5 °C during the early morning to 31.3 °C during the hottest time of the day, and for the hotter month, it ranged from 25.4 °C to 33.9 °C, respectively. The measured WBGT, natural wet-bulb temperature (Tnwb), dry-bulb temperature (Tdb), globe temperature (Tg), air velocity (Av), and absolute water vapor pressure (ea) were all statistically significantly higher in the hotter month than in the cooler months. Harvesting during the hotter month and harvesting burnt sugarcane were significantly associated with increased effective WBGT. The harvesters' heat stress in both seasons exceeded the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists - Threshold limit value for 72.7% of the working time in the cooler months and 90.9% in the hotter month.

Conclusions: The heat stress in Thai sugarcane workers was high in both seasons, particularly in the hotter month and when harvesting burnt sugarcane. This results in a very high risk of developing heat-related health effects, and measures are needed to reduce heat stress. Heat stress in agricultural and other outdoor work in tropical climates is an immediate and growing problem.

查看原文本刊更多论文

泰国甘蔗工人热应激反应严重。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Annals Of Work Exposures and Health Medicine-Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

CiteScore

4.60

自引率

19.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： About the Journal Annals of Work Exposures and Health is dedicated to presenting advances in exposure science supporting the recognition, quantification, and control of exposures at work, and epidemiological studies on their effects on human health and well-being. A key question we apply to submission is, "Is this paper going to help readers better understand, quantify, and control conditions at work that adversely or positively affect health and well-being?" We are interested in high quality scientific research addressing: the quantification of work exposures, including chemical, biological, physical, biomechanical, and psychosocial, and the elements of work organization giving rise to such exposures; the relationship between these exposures and the acute and chronic health consequences for those exposed and their families and communities; populations at special risk of work-related exposures including women, under-represented minorities, immigrants, and other vulnerable groups such as temporary, contingent and informal sector workers; the effectiveness of interventions addressing exposure and risk including production technologies, work process engineering, and personal protective systems; policies and management approaches to reduce risk and improve health and well-being among workers, their families or communities; methodologies and mechanisms that underlie the quantification and/or control of exposure and risk. There is heavy pressure on space in the journal, and the above interests mean that we do not usually publish papers that simply report local conditions without generalizable results. We are also unlikely to publish reports on human health and well-being without information on the work exposure characteristics giving rise to the effects. We particularly welcome contributions from scientists based in, or addressing conditions in, developing economies that fall within the above scope.