Effect of Climate Change Associated Hazards on Agricultural Workers and Approaches for Assessing Heat Stress and Its Mitigation Strategies – Review of Some Research Significances
Govinda Pal Thaneswer Patel, Trishita Banik
Abstract
The effect of climate change is one of the most significant intimidations to mankind after the Covid-19. Due to the nature of agricultural work, i.e., outdoor work environment, climate change has a more severe effect on agricultural workers. Hence the agricultural workers are more exposed and vulnerable to climate change-related hazards and hot environments. Therefore, the study on the impact of climate change associated hazards on the hours' agricultural workers' needs. An extensive literature review has been conducted for systematic segregation and representation of available information towards drawing inferences on climate change associated hazards on agricultural workers, effect of heat stress, and mitigation strategies. We have collected the literature by systematically reviewed available literature from various sources like Scopus, Google Scholar, Embase, CrossRef, Science Direct, and PubMed database and hardcopy of journals. The current review discusses climate change-related hazards like extreme weather events, extreme heat, air pollution, high level of O3, psychological stress, ultraviolet exposure, vector-borne diseases, and other biological hazards affect tremendously outdoor agricultural workers' health, which leads to low income in the agricultural sector. It also suggests possible future research directions to develop better strategies for preventing the effect of climate change on agricultural workers.