Occupational heat-related fatalities

[Guest guest]

This short article in the American Journal of Pubic Health has relevant information about heat-related occupational mortality among farmworkers.

C. Mirabelli, MPH and B. , PhD, Heat-Related Fatalities in North Carolina, April 2005, Vol 95, No. 4 | American Journal of Public Health 635-637

We used medical examiner’s records to identify heat-related fatalities (N=161) that occurred during the period January 1, 1977, to December 31, 2001, in North Carolina. Estimates of the population at risk were derived from US census data. Annual fatality rates increased with increases in average summer temperature and with the number of days per year at 90°F or higher. Of the occupational heat-related fatalities (n=40), 45% occurred among farm laborers, many of whom died unnoticed and without medical attention.

A. Arcury, PhD

Professor and Research Director

Department of Family and Community Medicine

Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1084

phone: 336-716-9438

fax: 336-716-3206