Every day, hundreds of workers across Washington state are hurt on the job. Some lose their lives. Many of the industries that shaped the state 鈥� forestry, fishing, agriculture 鈥� are riddled with risk.听听

The 91探花 has for years been instrumental in the state鈥檚 efforts to keep workers safe. 91探花experts study workplace hazards like the toxic fumes inhaled by nail salon workers and the worsening heat waves faced by agricultural workers east of the Cascades. The UW鈥檚 training and education programs, from undergraduate education to continuing education for industry professionals, prepare trainees to oversee health and safety programs for businesses across the state. 91探花experts consult with businesses on how to keep workers safe and productivity high. And a provides specialized care to injured workers.听

鈥淲orker health and safety is a vital component of what the 91探花 does,鈥� said , a 91探花assistant professor of environmental & occupational health sciences.听

But those efforts are now under threat. This year, the federal government has dramatically cut the programs that fund worker safety efforts like those at the UW. In April, the Trump administration of the (NIOSH), the federal agency dedicated to worker safety. The agency has closed nearly all its research and training programs, creating uncertainty over whether funding will continue. 听

NIOSH has long been a significant source of funding for UW鈥檚 occupational health and safety research and training programs, complementing core funding from the state. Without federal support, much of that work will stop in its tracks. That means less research into the hazards workers face, and fewer people who are trained to mitigate those risks and treat workplace injuries and illnesses.听

Ultimately, Baker fears workers across Washington will feel the impact.听

鈥淚 suspect that if the cuts to NIOSH are maintained and the work that we’re doing here at the 91探花 no longer continues, the number of workers who are injured or lose their lives in Washington is going to go up,鈥� Baker said.听听

Federal funds support the (NWCOHS), which prepares graduate students to work in occupational health and safety and provides continuing education to industry professionals. The NWCOHS addresses the need for specialists in occupational medicine by supporting training programs for physicians.听

Trainees work out of specialty clinics, including the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic at Harborview Medical Center, which treats patients who are injured on the job. Physicians at the clinic learn how to connect workplace exposures to patients鈥� health outcomes and craft treatment plans to help workers recover and safely return to work.听

听鈥淚t’s a unique combination of medicine and public health. We鈥檙e thinking about individual patients who are sitting in front of us, and also how to prevent workplace injuries and illness for populations of workers鈥� said , research associate professor of environmental & occupational health sciences and former director of the occupational & environmental medicine program at the UW. 鈥淭he goal is for workers and patients to be healthy and feel gratification from the work they’re doing, which often contributes to a healthy and productive workplace.鈥�听

The benefits aren鈥檛 theoretical 鈥� the UW鈥檚 occupational health and safety work has led directly to improved working conditions for some of the state鈥檚 most essential workers.听听

Consider forestry and agricultural workers, who experience higher rates of workplace injury and death on the job. For decades, the UW鈥檚 (PNASH) has received federal funding through a NIOSH program focused exclusively on agricultural workers鈥� health and safety. PNASH experts have built deep ties across the state, working in collaboration with community members and industry partners to build safer, stronger workplaces.听听

A few years ago, PNASH researchers learned that workers tasked with applying pesticides weren鈥檛 always properly wearing their protective equipment and faced frequent exposure to these hazardous chemicals. Researchers leaned into community and industry connections to better understand the barriers. Then they got to work on solutions.

PNASH developed practical training that allows pesticide applicators to see how the sprays drift through the air by using a fluorescent tracer that lights up on clothes or skin. They studied how workers typically apply pesticides and suggested new methods that ensured the chemicals hit their target and didn鈥檛 drift onto workers. And they built tools to translate the warning labels on pesticide containers, which were written almost entirely in English, into Spanish, the primary language of many farm workers.听

The developed in collaboration with farmers, educators and researchers across the state, is designed to benefit both workers and their employers.听

鈥淎 unique role that we have at the 91探花is being able to listen to those who don鈥檛 have the ability to individually contact their employer or to contact the state, and to really make their voice heard,鈥� said , a 91探花assistant professor of environmental & occupational health sciences whose research focuses on protecting agricultural workers. 鈥淎nd we work with a wide variety of partners to really engage those essential workers that are growing our food and fishing in dangerous waters and understand how we can return information to them that’s actionable, meaningful and practical.鈥�听

NIOSH funds make that work possible. But the White House has proposed eliminating all federal funding for agricultural worker health and safety, putting PNASH鈥檚 funding in jeopardy. Leaders are searching for alternate funding to support the center鈥檚 critical services.听

鈥淲e鈥檙e very concerned about this sudden change in federal focus and lack of resources being allocated to health and safety research,鈥� Austin said. 鈥淲e worry about our region in particular, that our workers are going to suffer and our businesses are going to have to bear the cost.鈥�听

All forest fire smoke is bad for people, but not all fires in forests are bad.

This is the conundrum faced by experts in forest management and public health: Climate change and decades of fire suppression that have increased fuels are contributing to larger and more intense wildfires and, in order to improve forest health and reduce these explosive fires, prescribed and managed fire is necessary.

These intentional fires 鈥� some deliberately set and others unintended but allowed to burn under control 鈥� will reduce the intensity of wildfire smoke in the long run, but they are still creating health-impacting smoke, often hitting populations least protected from exposure to smoke.

To find consensus on how to deal with the impacts of all fires on dry Western forests, the 91探花 and The Nature Conservancy led a series of conversations involving roughly 60 experts charged with keeping forests and people healthy. The led the organization of these discussions.

On May 2, more than two dozen of those participants that is part review of current scientific understanding of the issues and health impacts and part consensus report on how to deal with them.

鈥淚t started as a conversation between experts who think about fire from really different angles in order to find how we can address fire through an interdisciplinary lens,鈥� said lead author , a postdoctoral fellow in UW鈥檚 Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. 鈥淚t took a little bit to get to the fact that it was really smoke that brought us all together. We kind of had to set a baseline for what peoples鈥� starting points were 鈥� all smoke is bad smoke from a public health perspective, but we can’t do fire management without more fire.鈥�

That working group 鈥� comprised of scientists, practitioners and managers who specialize in areas of forest and fire ecology, fire safety, air quality, health care and public health 鈥� agreed on six statements and recommendations as part of its 鈥渋nterdisciplinary approach鈥� to the issues.

鈥淭he Nature Conservancy is dedicated to an evidence-based approach to forest and fire management practices that supports the health of both nature and people. These consensus statements aim to serve as guideposts for forest health and public health professionals to work together to promote healthy and resilient forests and communities,鈥� said , co-author and director of conservation science for The Nature Conservancy in Oregon.

The first consensus statement addresses the issue of the long-running effort to suppress all forest fires versus the historic practices of Indigenous peoples:

鈥淲e recognize the need to listen to and integrate a diversity of perspectives, in particular those embodied by Indigenous peoples who have successfully used fire as an ecological tool for thousands of years,鈥� the authors wrote.

鈥淚鈥檝e often heard from Tribal leaders how controlled burns were one of many tools they employed historically to steward healthy ecosystems,鈥� said , co-author and executive director of the Tribal Healthy Homes听Network. 鈥淭his Tribal knowledge has been overlooked, perilously, during decades of European colonization, and federal land management practices. It is only in recent years, as forest ecosystems decline in health, that Western science has begun to recognize and learn from the innate sensibility and sustainability of traditional Tribal burning practices.鈥�

Here are the other five consensus statements:

• Prescribed fires in addition to managed fires for resource benefit are both necessary management techniques to keep forests resilient and to lessen the negative ecological and public health impacts of wildfires.
• Certain regions of the Western U.S. will experience more smoke days with heightened use of prescribed and managed fire; however, we expect the impacts of smoke exposure to be reduced over the long term in comparison with untreated land burned by wildfires. With these techniques, exposure in affected communities can be planned and lessened.
• No degree of smoke exposure is without risk. However, additional investment in advance preparation for affected populations can lower associated health risks. A smoke-resilient community is resilient to smoke from any type of fire.
• We must work to promote both equity in process (e.g., who has a say in decision-making) and equity in outcomes (e.g., who gets exposed to the smoke) within those communities and populations experiencing disproportionate impacts from smoke.
• We are missing opportunities for positive impact by working as separate disciplines. We recommend that further and intentional integration of forest/fire and health disciplines (including the practitioners, tools and resources) needs to occur to lessen the human health effects of smoke exposure due to prescribed and managed fires.

In their conclusion, the authors point out that when all stakeholders work together to 鈥渃ombat this climate and public health crisis,鈥� communities will be more able to meet these goals, both during and outside of wildfire season.

鈥淓xtra attention must be given to people who have more smoke exposure, are more likely to experience health problems from smoke, and who don鈥檛 have enough support to anticipate, adapt, respond or recover from smoke,鈥� added听, senior author and associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences in the 91探花School of Public Health. 鈥淭hese disproportionately affected populations must be included in decision-making to address inequities in smoke health impacts.鈥�

D’Evelyn hopes the paper will inspire more interagency and cross-disciplinary efforts and funding for research and preparation.

鈥淭here are really wonderful community organizations working to make sure that people have access to clean air. And, there are really wonderful organizations working to do as much prescribed burning as they’re allowed to lessen the smoke or lessen the severity of wildfires when they come through,鈥� D’Evelyn said. 鈥淏ut there are gaps where communities, organizations and researchers could be collaborating to have an even bigger impact on preparedness.鈥�

Other co-authors are Jihoon Jung, Ernesto Alvarado, Jill Baumgartner, Pete听Caligiuri, R. Keala Hagmann, Sarah Henderson, Paul Hessburg, Sean Hopkins, Edward Kasner, Meg Krawchuk, Jennifer Krenz, Jamie Lydersen, Miriam E. Marlier, Yuta J. Masuda, Kerry Metlen, Susan Prichard, Claire Schollaert, Edward Smith, Jens Stevens, Christopher Tessum, Carolyn Reeb-Whitaker, Joseph Wilkins, Nicholas Wolff, Leah Wood.

For author affiliations, please see the publication.

This research was funded by Science for Nature and People Partnerships, The Nature Conservancy and CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

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For more information, contact D’Evelyn at sdevelyn@uw.edu.

The , published Dec. 17 in One Earth, compares established recommendations on safe working conditions with satellite observations of temperature and forest cover and population data. Results show how warming associated with recent deforestation, from 2003 to 2018, has increased heat exposure for 4.9 million people globally, including 2.8 million outdoor workers.

鈥淥ur findings highlight the vital role tropical forests play in effectively providing natural air-conditioning services for populations vulnerable to climate change听鈥� given these are typically regions where outdoor work tends to be the only option for many, and where workers don鈥檛 have the luxury of retiring to air-conditioned offices whenever the temperature rises to intolerable levels,鈥� said lead author , who began the study as a postdoctoral researcher at the 91探花 and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University.

Decreases in safe working hours associated with heat exposure were found to be of particular concern in areas that are deforested, compared with regions where most tropical forest remains intact. The researchers found 鈥渉ot spots鈥� for deforestation-related heat exposure in Brazil, Belize, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nigeria and Cameroon.

The study also highlights disproportionate heat exposure for populations working in parts of Brazil听鈥� warning that future projections of global warming, compounded by unchecked forest loss, will only exacerbate this situation.

In the western state of Mato Grosso and the northern state of Par谩, for example听鈥� even in the unlikely event of no further deforestation or population growth听鈥� the study projects that future global warming of 2 degrees Celsius relative to today could see more than a quarter of a million people lose two more hours of safe working time per day compared with 2003, in just these two recently deforested regions.

鈥淔or me, this research highlighted two messages,鈥� Parsons said. 鈥淥ne, that removing tropical rainforest is not only bad for global climate change, but is also bad for local ecosystems and people. And two, if we can prevent tropical deforestation, there is a tangible benefit for the people living in areas with tropical forest.鈥�

Co-authors are and Dr. in environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW; and in atmospheric sciences at the UW; and Yuta Masuda, Timm Kroeger and Nick Wolff at The Nature Conservancy.

For more information, contact Parsons at luke.parsons@duke.edu.

Adapted from a from The Nature Conservancy.

Outdoor workers in the world鈥檚 lower-latitude tropical forests may face a greater risk of heat-related deaths and unsafe working conditions because of deforestation and climate warming, according to a led by The Nature Conservancy, the 91探花 and Indonesia鈥檚 Mulawarman University.

In the study, researchers found that increased temperatures of 0.95 C (1.7 F) in the deforested areas of Berau Regency, Indonesia, between 2002 and 2018 were linked to roughly 118 additional deaths in 2018, and 20 additional minutes of daily conditions too hot for humans to work in safely. Future climate warming of 2 C (3.6 F) above 2018鈥檚 levels could increase deaths in Berau by 20% (approximately 282 additional annual deaths) and another five unsafe work hours per day 鈥� even without greater deforestation.

鈥淎mbient heat exposure and internal body heat from heavy physical work can increase the risk of heat-related illnesses, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke 鈥� which can be fatal 鈥� as well as acute kidney injury and traumatic injuries,鈥� said听 co-author , associate professor and assistant chair of environmental and occupational health sciences in the 91探花School of Public Health.

Researchers point out that the increase in heat-related deaths with a 2 C rise in global temperatures would be comparable to mortality from other long-term public health challenges in Asia, such as tobacco smoking. In addition, they write, 鈥渨orkers in Berau are already adapting to hotter temperatures due to deforestation, suggesting those engaged in outdoor work may already be approaching their adaptive capacity through behavioral adaptations.鈥�

The study in Lancet Planetary Health used publicly available and secondary data such as satellite monitoring of forest cover, temperatures, climate models, population densities, and the report published annually in The Lancet by the 91探花Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Researchers focused on Berau as an area emblematic of tropical forest regions facing rapid deforestation.

鈥淎pproximately 800 million people live and work in the world鈥檚 tropical forest nations,鈥� Spector said. 鈥淭hese forests can act as natural air conditioners and sequester carbon, thus having implications for both climate change adaptation and mitigation. Information from this modeling study should be considered in discussions about trade-offs between economic welfare, human health, the natural environment and decisions about climate change adaptation and mitigation.鈥�

Other 91探花authors of the study are , graduate student, and , professor and Tamaki Endowed Chair, in the Department of Atmospheric Science; and , professor of global health and environmental and occupational health sciences in the School of Public Health. For complete list of authors and more about the study see The Nature Conservancy鈥檚 .

The study was supported by a pilot research grant from the 91探花Population Health Initiative.

The global pandemic has put a focus on essential workers, those we rely on for basic services. Workers who pick crops, from strawberries to apples to nuts, already face harsh conditions harvesting in fields during summer harvest months. Those conditions will worsen significantly over the coming decades.

A new from the 91探花 and Stanford University, published online in Environmental Research Letters, looks at temperature increases in counties across the United States where crops are grown. It also looks at different strategies the industry could adopt to protect workers鈥� health.

“Studies of climate change and agriculture have traditionally focused on crop yield projections, especially staple crops like corn and wheat,” said lead author , a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University who did the work while at the UW. 鈥淭his study asks what global warming means for the health of agricultural workers picking fruits and vegetables.鈥�

The average picker now experiences 21 days each year when the daily heat index 鈥� a mix of air temperature and humidity 鈥� would exceed workplace safety standards. Using projections from climate models, the study shows the number of unsafe days in crop-growing counties will jump to 39 days per season under 2 degrees Celsius warming, which is expected by 2050, and to 62 unsafe days under 4 degrees Celsius warming, which is expected by 2100.

鈥淚 was surprised by the scale of the change 鈥� seeing a doubling of unsafe days by mid-century, then a tripling by 2100. And we think that’s a low estimate,鈥� Tigchelaar said.

The study also shows that heat waves, prolonged stretches of three or more of the hottest days for each county, will occur five times as often, on average, under 2 degrees Celsius of warming.

Roughly 1 million people officially are employed in the U.S. picking agricultural crops. The authors used the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics job codes to determine their locations. The 20 counties that employ the most pickers all are in California, Washington, Oregon and Florida. The actual number of agricultural workers in the U.S. is estimated at more than 2 million.

This population already is vulnerable to health risks. Agricultural workers tend to have lower incomes and less health coverage, a majority say they are not fluent in English, and many do not have legal work status in the U.S., meaning they are less likely to seek medical care. Farmworkers already report more kidney ailments and other conditions related to heat stress.

Tigchelaar began the study after a 2017 in Washington state, when a blueberry picker died during a hot and smoky period. That prompted Tigchelaar, then a postdoctoral researcher at the UW, to think about how agricultural workers are particularly at risk from climate change.

鈥淭he people who are the most vulnerable are asked to take the highest risk so that we, as consumers, can eat a healthy, nutritious diet,鈥� Tigchelaar said.

The authors also considered what steps might protect agricultural workers. The interdisciplinary team used an occupational health for heat stress that combines heat generated by physical activity with the external temperature and humidity. The four adaptation strategies they considered were working significantly less vigorously, taking longer breaks, wearing thinner and more breathable protective clothing, and taking breaks in a cooled shelter.

“This is the first study that I鈥檓 aware of that has attempted to quantify the effect of various adaptations, at the workplace level, to mitigate the risk of increased heat exposure with global warming for agricultural workers,” said co-author , a 91探花associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences.

Results show that the most effective way to reduce heat stress would be to develop lighter protective clothing that would still shield workers from pesticides or other hazards. And using any three of the four adaptation strategies in combination would be enough to offset the temperature increases.

Many workplaces are already protecting workers from heat, said Spector, who conducts research in the 91探花. This new study helps employers and workers foresee future conditions and think about how to prepare.

The authors caution that the study is not an excuse to stop reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Lower emissions can’t avoid the temperature increases projected by 2050, but the longer-term adaptation measures considered would have a big impact on farm productivity and profitability.

“The climate science community has long been pointing to the global south, the developing countries, as places that will be disproportionately affected by climate change,鈥� said co-author , a 91探花professor of atmospheric sciences. 鈥淭his shows that you don’t have to go to the global south to find people who will get hurt with even modest amounts of global warming 鈥� you just have to look in our own backyard.”

This research was funded by the Tamaki Foundation and the CDC鈥檚 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

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For more information, contact Tigchelaar at mtigch@stanford.edu, Spector at spectj@uw.edu or Battisti at battisti@uw.edu.