TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2023//
TI  - The burden of occupational injury attributable to high temperatures in Australia, 2014-19: a retrospective observational study
JO  - Medical journal of Australia
A1  - Varghese, Blesson M.
A1  - Hansen, Alana
A1  - Mann, Nick
A1  - Liu, Jingwen
A1  - Zhang, Ying
A1  - Driscoll, Tim R.
A1  - Morgan, Geoffrey G.
A1  - Dear, Keith
A1  - Capon, Anthony
A1  - Gourley, Michelle
A1  - Prescott, Vanessa
A1  - Dolar, Vergil
A1  - Bi, Peng
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - OBJECTIVES: To assess the population health impact of high temperatures on workplace health and safety by estimating the burden of heat-attributable occupational injury in Australia. STUDY DESIGN, SETTING: Retrospective observational study; estimation of burden of occupational injury in Australia attributable to high temperatures during 2014-19, based on Safe Work Australia (work-related traumatic injury fatalities and workers' compensation databases) and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data (Australian Burden of Disease Study and National Hospital Morbidity databases), and a meta-analysis of climate zone-specific risk data. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Burden of heat-attributable occupational injuries as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), comprising the numbers of years of life lived with disability (YLDs) and years of life lost (YLLs), nationally, by Köppen-Geiger climate zone, and by state and territory. <br><br>RESULTS: During 2014-19, an estimated 42 884 years of healthy life were lost to occupational injury, comprising 39 485 YLLs (92.1%) and 3399 YLDs (7.9%), at a rate of 0.80 DALYs per 1000 workers per year. A total of 967 occupational injury-related DALYs were attributable to heat (2.3% of occupational injury-related DALYs), comprising 890 YLLs (92%) and 77 YLDs (8%). By climate zone, the heat-attributable proportion was largest in the tropical Am (12 DALYs; 3.5%) and Aw zones (34 DALYs; 3.5%); by state and territory, the proportion was largest in New South Wales and Queensland (each 2.9%), which also included the largest numbers of heat-attributable occupational injury-related DALYs (NSW: 379 DALYs, 39% of national total; Queensland: 308 DALYs; 32%). <br><br>CONCLUSION: An estimated 2.3% of the occupational injury burden in Australia is attributable to high ambient temperatures. To prevent this burden increasing with global warming, adaptive measures and industry-based policies are needed to safeguard workplace health and safety, particularly in heat-exposed industries, such as agriculture, transport, and construction.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0025-729X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5694/mja2.52171
ID  - ref1
ER  -