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The impact of heat and impaired kidney function on productivity of Guatemalan sugarcane workers.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Climate change has implications for human health and productivity. Models suggest that heat extremes affect worker health, reduce labor capacity, and commodity supply. Chronic health conditions are on the rise internationally. However there is a paucity of direct empirical evidence relating increasing temperatures to both agricultural worker health and productivity. METHODS AND FINDINGS:We evaluated the relationship between temperature exposure, kidney function, and two measures of productivity-tons of commodity produced and job attrition, of 4,095 Guatemalan sugarcane cutters over a 6-month harvest. We used distributed lag non-linear models to evaluate associations between wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and productivity of workers with normal or impaired kidney function. The cumulative effect of exposure to a max WBGT of 34°C was 1.16 tons (95% CI: -2.87, 0.54) less sugarcane cut over the next five days by workers with impaired kidney function, compared to exposure to 29°C. Impaired kidney function was associated with premature workforce attrition. Workers starting the harvest season with impaired kidney function were more than twice as likely to leave employment (HR: 2.92, 95% CI: 1.88, 4.32). CONCLUSIONS:Heat extremes may be associated with loss of agricultural worker productivity and employment, especially among those with impaired kidney function. Agricultural workers who develop health conditions, such as kidney disease, are particularly vulnerable in the face of climate change and increasing heat extremes. The resultant loss of employment and productivity has significant implications for global commodity supplies.

SUBMITTER: Dally M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6173423 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The impact of heat and impaired kidney function on productivity of Guatemalan sugarcane workers.

Dally Miranda M Butler-Dawson Jaime J Krisher Lyndsay L Monaghan Andrew A Weitzenkamp David D Sorensen Cecilia C Johnson Richard J RJ Carlton Elizabeth J EJ Asensio Claudia C Tenney Liliana L Newman Lee S LS

PloS one 20181005 10

<h4>Background</h4>Climate change has implications for human health and productivity. Models suggest that heat extremes affect worker health, reduce labor capacity, and commodity supply. Chronic health conditions are on the rise internationally. However there is a paucity of direct empirical evidence relating increasing temperatures to both agricultural worker health and productivity.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>We evaluated the relationship between temperature exposure, kidney function, and two ...[more]

PMID: 30289894

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Project description:In Central America, an epidemic of chronic kidney disease of unknown cause disproportionately affects young male agricultural workers.Longitudinal cohort study.284 sugarcane workers in 7 jobs were recruited from one company in northwestern Nicaragua. Blood and urine samples were collected before and near the end of the 6-month harvest season.Job category (cane cutter, seeder, seed cutter, agrichemical applicator, irrigator, driver, and factory worker); self-reported water and electrolyte solution intake.Changes in levels of urinary kidney injury biomarkers normalized to urine creatinine level, including neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), interleukin 18 (IL-18), N-acetyl-?-d-glucosaminidase (NAG), and albumin; serum creatinine-based estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).Mean eGFR was 113 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and <5% of workers had albuminuria. Field workers had increases in NGAL and IL-18 levels that were 1.49 (95% CI, 1.06 to 2.09) and 1.61 (95% CI, 1.12 to 2.31) times as high, respectively, as in non-field workers. Cane cutters and irrigators had the greatest increases in NGAL levels during the harvest, whereas cane cutters and seeders had the greatest increases in IL-18 levels. Electrolyte solution consumption was associated with lower mean NGAL and NAG levels among cane cutters and lower mean IL-18 and NAG levels among seed cutters; however, there was no overall effect of hydration among all workers. On average, workers with the largest increases in NGAL and NAG levels during the harvest had declines in eGFRs of 4.6 (95% CI, 1.0 to 8.2) and 3.1 (95% CI, -0.6 to 6.7) mL/min/1.73 m(2), respectively.Surrogate exposure measure, loss to follow-up.Results are consistent with the hypothesis that occupational heat stress and volume depletion may be associated with the development of kidney disease, and future studies should directly measure these occupational factors. The presence of urine tubular injury markers supports a tubulointerstitial disease that could occur with repeated tubular injury.

Dataset Information

The impact of heat and impaired kidney function on productivity of Guatemalan sugarcane workers.

Publications

The impact of heat and impaired kidney function on productivity of Guatemalan sugarcane workers.

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