Grant: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Extreme heat is a threat to human health. In 2021, an unprecedented heat wave affected western North America, resulting in 740 deaths in British Columbia (BC). Some workers are particularly vulnerable to hot weather due to their limited ability to control heat exposure in occupational settings (e.g., those working outdoors). From 2018 to 2020, WorkSafeBC approved almost 100 work-related claims due to heat stress. This trend is expected to continue upwards. In BC, where most of the population resides in a geographic area with a temperate climate, extreme heat reveals major gaps in our understanding of how heat affects workers. The majority of evidence is derived from the general population and a few target subgroups (e.g., elderly), which seriously limits our abilities to infer impacts, assess trends, and inform policies and practices that reduce heat-related risks among workers. To build this foundational knowledge base, I will conduct a review to collate and assess epidemiological evidence of occupational heat-related health impacts, and a scan of policies and practices in relation to heat exposure of workers from jurisdictions across Canada and the world. Subsequently, I will examine the relationships between heat and health outcomes (heat illness and injury) among workers aged 15 and greater in BC to identify occupational and individual characteristics (e.g., demographics, chronic health conditions) that place workers at greater risk. This will not only address a critical gap in the association between heat exposure and occupational health, but also become a valuable first step in the future optimization of policies/practices and create a foundation for more personalized heat stress management programs targeting vulnerable workers to promote health equity and mitigate heat-related risks among workers in BC.