Thermal stress

Current and Future Heat Stress in Nicaraguan Work Places under a Changing Climate

Authors: 
Sheffield PE, Herrera JG, Lemke B, Kjellstrom T, Romero LE
Year: 
2013

While climate change continues to increase ambient temperatures, the resulting heat stress exposure to workers in non-climate controlled settings is not well characterized, particularly in low and middle income countries. This preliminary report describes current heat stress in Nica-raguan work places and estimates occupational heat stress in 2050. From over 400 measurements of heat exposure using wet bulb globe temperature, more than 10% of all measurements exceeded the safety threshold for the combination of light work and rest at the ratio of 25:75.