Solutions to Heat-Related Kidney Injury Among Outdoor Laborers

Team: Shuchi Anand, Lisa Goldman Rosas, Julie Parsonnet, H. Craig Heller, Wei-ting Chen

An increasingly warmer climate poses an existential threat to outdoor laborers. Beyond heat exhaustion and stroke, outdoor workers are at risk of irreversible kidney damage, which in turn results in end-stage kidney disease and a life-altering requirement for dialysis or transplant. This project will engage stakeholders in California’s agricultural industry to test, implement, and scale inexpensive cooling solutions for outdoor workers that reduce heat stress and retain productivity. With more than 1 billion people working in agriculture worldwide—many of whom are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change—this work has the potential to mitigate critical health risks for a marginalized and climate-vulnerable population globally.