Employed

Per Capita Income

Above Poverty

Economic

Preschool Enrollment

Bachelor's Education

High School Enrollment

Education

Voting

Census Response

Social

Automobile Access

Active Commuting

Transportation

Insured Adults

Healthcare Access

Retail Density

Park Access

Tree Canopy

Neighborhood

Severely Cost Burdened Low-Income Renters

Severely Cost Burdened Low-Income Homeowners

Housing Habitability

Uncrowded Housing

Homeownership

Housing

Ozone

Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5)

Diesel Particulate Matter

Safe Drinking Water

Clean Environment

Extreme Heat

Impervious Surfaces

Outdoor Workers

Public Transit Access

Sea Level Rise

Two Parent Households

Alcohol Availability

Supermarket Access

Decision Support

Every worker should be safe from heat-related health impacts and other workplace hazards. Working outdoors increases workers’ exposure to the extreme heat, poor air quality, diseases transmitted by ticks and mosquitos, industrial exposures, and injury. These risks are all exacerbated by climate change. When exposed to extreme and prolonged heat, people experience heat-related illnesses such as heat stress, heat exhaustion, heat stroke (which if not promptly and properly treated can be fatal) and safety lapses leading to injury. High heat can also make pre-existing cardiovascular, respiratory and other conditions worse, and encourage the formation of ozone in polluted areas.

 All workers, including those who work within non-airconditioned buildings, face health risks. Yet workers in construction, agriculture, mining, refining, forestry, and fishing industries are at particular risk of heat-related health impacts. Outdoor work may be especially dangerous for those who are undocumented, do not speak English, or otherwise lack power and control over their working conditions.

 Risks are intensified for workers who are unused to working outdoors or in high-heat conditions. Finally, outdoor workers may be affected by other climate-related impacts such as drought resulting in agricultural losses and unemployment, or first responders fighting wildfires or responding to floods.

This indicator measures the percent of adults (over 16 years old) who work outdoors. For more information, see: The California Department of Public Health’s 

California Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (CalBRACE) 

“Resilience” is defined as “the capacity of a community, business, or natural environment to prevent, withstand, respond to, and recover from a disruption.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climate Resilience Toolkit, available at https://toolkit.climate.gov/content/glossary

Boweler, D. et al., “How Effective Is ‘Greening’ Of Urban Areas In Reducing Human Exposure To Ground Level Ozone Concentrations, Uv Exposure And The ‘Urban Heat Island Effect’?,” Collaboration for Environmental Evidence Review 08, no. 004 (2010), www.environmentalevidence.org/SR41.html.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Reducing Heat Islands: Compendium of Strategies- Cool Roofs,” 2008.

Younger M, Morrow-Almeida H, Vindigni S, and Dannenberg A. 2008. The built environment, climate change, and health: Opportunities for co-benefits. American Journal of Preventive Medicine: 35:5, 517-526.

Wolf K. 2014. Water and wellness: Green infrastructure for health co-benefits. Storm water Report: Water Environment Federation (WEF). stormwater.wef.org/2014/04/water-wellness/. Accessed 13 April 2016.

K Ebi and J Semenza, “Community-Based Adaptation to the Health Impacts of Climate Change,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 35, no. 5 (2008): 501–7.

California Department of Public Health. Building Resilience Against Climate Effects: Climate and Health Profiles. 2017. Available at: https://archive.cdph.ca.gov/programs/Pages/CalBRACE.aspx

California Department of Public Health and the Public Health Institute. Heat-Related Illness and Mortality_ Information for the Public Health Network of California. 2007. Available at: http://cehtp.org/download/climate_change/public-health-impacts-of-climate-change-in-ca-report-no-1-heat-related-illness

USGCRP, 2016: The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment. Crimmins, A., J. Balbus, J.L. Gamble, C.B. Beard, J.E. Bell, D. Dodgen, R.J. Eisen, N. Fann, M.D. Hawkins, S.C. Herring, L. Jantarasami, D.M. Mills, S. Saha, M.C. Sarofim, J. Trtanj, and L. Ziska, Eds. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, 312 pp. http://dx.doi.org/10.7930/J0R49NQX

Riley, Kevin et al. “From Agricultural Fields to Urban Asphalt: The Role of Worker Education to Promote California's Heat Illness Prevention Standard.” New Solutions. 2012. 22(3):297-323

American Public Health Association. Improving Housing or Farmworkers in the United States is a Public Health Issue. 2018. https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2014/07/09/10/32/improving-housing-for-farmworkers-in-the-united-states-is-a-public-health-imperative and Sonoma County Department of Health Services. Sonoma County Farmworker Health Survey. 2015. http://www.sonoma-county.org/health/publications/pdf/farmworker-health-survey.pdf

Addressing the health impacts of climate change on outdoor workers requires a range of measures designed to prepare communities and households for extreme heat and to increase resilience.

) requires California jurisdictions to conduct vulnerability assessments and define resiliency goals, policies, and objectives in either the safety element of their General Plan, or by incorporating it in local hazard mitigation planning. Local jurisdictions can reduce the health impacts of extreme heat by using these planning processes to understand likely climate changes and impacts, assess vulnerability, and craft interventions. The State of California has developed the 

, a step-by-step guide for local governments, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 

Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) Framework

 offers guidance for health agencies and others seeking to address the health effects of climate change.

Assessing vulnerability to climate impacts is a particularly important step in resilience planning. While climate change impacts all Californians, some individuals and families are more impacted, and have fewer resources to draw upon to help them adapt. 

The health impacts of climate change often deepen existing social inequities—magnifying or layering new risks on top of economic, social, environmental, biological, and health disparities

 Using the BRACE framework, the California Department of Public Health has produced 

Climate Change and Health Profile Reports

, summarizing health risks and vulnerability by county. They have also published 

Climate Change and Health Vulnerability Indicators

 to help local jurisdictions understand climate change and health vulnerability. The 

 can also be used to assess underlying social vulnerabilities at the census tract level.

Actions designed to improve climate resilience also provide the opportunity to maximize additional health or quality of life benefits that can be achieved in addition to increased resilience. Adaptation measures designed to safeguard outdoor workers offer a number of benefits. For instance, efforts to create heat-resilient workplaces can work in partnership with other efforts to educate, regulate, organize, or otherwise protect workers from occupational health and safety concerns. Urban greening/cooling and weatherization/energy efficiency upgrades can provide job opportunities in communities with high rates of unemployment. Urban greening, green infrastructure, and compact development for healthy communities can also provide opportunities for healthy recreation and transportation and manage wastewater. Local governments should prioritize interventions that minimize risk in communities most likely to be impacted, while maximizing multiple benefits that support healthier community conditions.

Resilience efforts should prioritize the participation of community members in each step of the process. This will help ensure that community standards, expectations and requirements are effectively addressed, while building buy-in and support for resilience measures, and improving community capacity to envision and address climate impacts. For more information, see: The California Department of Public Health’s 

, and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network’s 

Equitable, Community Driven Climate Preparedness Planning

In the short term, jurisdictions with a high percentage of outdoor workers should make sure they are 

 for heat events, by reviewing and improving emergency response plans and systems to warn and protect residents and workers during extreme heat events. When heat events strike, effective and targeted 

 systems should be in place that place special emphasis on protecting outdoor workers. Jurisdictions can also help ensure that workers have 

 with shade, water, and health-protective work practices.

In the longer term, local governments--especially in urban or suburban areas--can create 

 by prioritizing cool infrastructure and recreation facilitates, 

 that provide shade and manage storm water, and 

 strategies to further mitigate the heat-island effect. They can also help foster 

 which has been shown to reduce social vulnerability and the health impacts of climate events. 

Support community and worker power, social connections, and climate awareness, which have been shown to reduce social vulnerability and the health impacts of climate events.: Reduce the heat-island effect, and help workers stay safe with cool infrastructure and recreation facilities.

Emerging

Capacity Building and Technical Assistance Programs

Community Power and Connection

Equity

Environmental Justice Element (SB 1000)

Sufficient Evidence

Community Organizing

Community-Based Resilience Planning Processes

Plan for walkable, compact, mixed-use neighborhoods with affordable housing choices near transit to reduce paved surfaces and vehicle miles traveled, mitigate the heat-island effect, and keep neighborhoods and workplaces cool.

Healthy Neighborhoods

Pollution

Climate

Promising

Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing

Cool Transit Facilities

Strong Evidence

Parking Requirements

Workplaces should support worker safety and health during heat events with shade, water, and health-protective practices.

Workplace Heat Standards

Best Practice

Workplace Heat Advisories

Labor Organizing

Farm Worker Housing

Local governments should get ready by reviewing and improving emergency response plans and systems to warn and protect residents and workers during heat events.

Proactive Heat Outreach and Education

Heat Response Plans

Use natural systems to protect workers by reducing heat-island effects and providing shade.

Green Roofs

Physical Activity

Urban Greening

Reduce the heat-island effect, and help workers stay safe with cool infrastructure and recreation facilities.  

Cool Pavements

Cool Recreation Facilities

Cool Roofs

When heat events strike, effective and targeted systems should be in place, with special emphasis on protecting outdoor workers.

Policy Guide

Outdoor Workers

References