Examining Heat Stress and Noise in Construction: A Reddit-Based Investigation of Workplace Challenges

Construction workers face significant challenges from workplace stressors such as heat exposure and noise. This study investigates these issues by analyzing a construction-focused dataset mined from Reddit using social media data analysis techniques. A structured keyword-pairing strategy yielded 7,661 posts during the summer of 2024. Of these, 4,500 posts were manually reviewed, identifying 642 samples directly relevant to construction workers’ health concerns. Advanced NLP techniques, such as BERTopic modeling, were employed to uncover key insights. The findings revealed that Reddit users actively discuss these environmental challenges, with Texas being the most frequently mentioned location. Using BERTopic modeling, key themes emerged, including “Heat, Hot, Construction, Water” and “Mental Health, Work, Health,” highlighting the environmental stressors and mental health concerns in construction.