Assessing the impacts of rising temperatures on farmworkers’ health in Mexico

This report presents progress in the Farmworkers’ Health Component of Aim 3, which assesses the health impacts of rising temperatures on agricultural workers in Mexico under current and projected climate change scenarios. The objective of this component is to identify high risk areas, estimate heat-related health impacts, and generate evidence to inform adaptation strategies and occupational risk reduction policies.The primary intended audiences of this report include the Wellcome Trust and project partners at INSP, CIMMYT and Cornell University, providing technical updates on methodological progress and analytical outputs. It can also inform national and subnational decision makers in the health, labour and agricultural sectors, as well as researchers working at the intersection of climate change, occupational health and food systems.During this phase, substantial advances have been achieved. A comprehensive literature review identified concentration response relationships linking heat exposure to multiple health outcomes, supporting the adoption of a WBGT based framework for exposure assessment. Agricultural and demographic datasets were harmonised to estimate the municipal and seasonal distribution of permanent and seasonal farmworkers. Historical daily climate data for 1996 to 2023 were obtained from Copernicus Climate Change Service and are being processed to generate high resolution WBGT estimates. Preliminary GIS based risk maps for 2022 demonstrate the feasibility of identifying municipalities with both high farmworker populations and elevated heat exposure. The next phase will integrate epidemiological modelling and projected climate scenarios to quantify future health impacts.'This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust [310024/Z/24/Z]. Potential climate change effects on food security, nutrition, and health of the Mexican population. Co-design integrated policy measures. January 2024 '