Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: Protection Resilience Efficiency and Prevention for Workers in Industrial Agriculture in a Changing Climate

该奖项为参与由55个国家通过贝尔蒙特论坛发起的全球变化研究项目的美国研究人员提供支持。贝尔蒙特论坛是一个研究资助组织的联盟，致力于支持跨学科方法来应对全球环境变化的挑战和机遇。它的目的是通过协调和调动国际资源，加速提供最迫切需要的国际研究，以消除可持续发展的关键障碍。每个伙伴国在一个联盟中为它们的研究人员提供资金，以减轻对跨越国际边界的资金的需求。这种方法有助于有效利用国家资源，支持对全球相关主题的优秀研究，最好通过多国方法解决，同时认识到全球挑战需要全球解决方案。伙伴机构在这一合作研究行动中共同努力，提供了支持，以培养由自然（包括气候）、卫生和社会科学家以及来自全球各地的利益攸关方组成的全球跨学科研究团队，以增进对气候、环境和健康途径的了解，从而保护和促进健康。这些项目将为气候变化和变异对健康的影响提供重要的新认识；1)食物的质量/数量，2)长期暴露于热量和湿度的增加/变化，3)一系列传染病的分布和发病率的变化以及新病原体的出现。该奖项为美国研究人员在至少三个参与国的合作伙伴组成的联盟中合作提供支持，以增加我们对气候、环境和健康之间复杂联系和途径的认识，帮助解决社会面临的复杂挑战。该项目旨在了解极端高温对慢性肾病的影响，目前拉丁美洲和亚洲有数百万工人患有慢性肾病。极端高温下的艰苦工作被认为是主要驱动因素，工业农业甘蔗部门的工人受影响最大。对拉丁美洲和亚洲许多地区未来气候的预测显示，气温和干旱将不断上升，许多预测表明，这些地区将发生极端高温事件和干旱。慢性肾脏疾病的治疗费用昂贵，导致许多患者过早死亡。如果不采取预防措施，由于气温升高和极端高温，这种流行病可能会加速蔓延。该项目将为尼加拉瓜的一家工业甘蔗厂制定应对和预防战略。该项目将设法评估该战略对劳动力健康和生产力的直接和长期影响，对受该病影响的人的经济和社会影响，以及社区复原力和卫生系统的经济负担。该项目将使地方和国家层面的广泛利益攸关方受益，包括地方社区、政府、卫生服务机构以及地方和国家决策者。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award provides support to U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by a 55-country initiative on global change research through the Belmont Forum. The Belmont Forum is a consortium of research funding organizations focused on support for transdisciplinary approaches to global environmental change challenges and opportunities. It aims to accelerate delivery of the international research most urgently needed to remove critical barriers to sustainability by aligning and mobilizing international resources. Each partner country provides funding for their researchers within a consortium to alleviate the need for funds to cross international borders. This approach facilitates effective leveraging of national resources to support excellent research on topics of global relevance best tackled through a multinational approach, recognizing that global challenges need global solutions.Working together in this Collaborative Research Action, the partner agencies have provided support to foster global transdisciplinary research teams of natural (including climate), health and social scientists and stakeholders from across the globe to improve understanding of climate, environment and health pathways to protect and promote health. The projects will provide crucial new understanding into the health implications arising from the impacts of climate change and variability on; 1) the quality/quantity of food, 2) chronic exposure to increases/changes in heat and humidity and 3) changes in the distribution and incidence of a range of infectious diseases and emergence of novel pathogens. This award provides support for the U.S. researchers to cooperate in consortia that consist of partners from at least three of the participating countries to increase our knowledge of the complex linkages and pathways between the climate, environment and health to help solve complex challenges that face societies. The project seeks to understand the effects of extreme heat on chronic kidney disease, which currently affects millions of workers in Latin America and Asia. Strenuous work in extreme heat is considered a main driver and workers in the sugarcane sector of industrial agriculture industry are the most affected. Future projections of climate in many areas of Latin America and Asia show increasing temperatures and aridity, with many projections indicating that extreme heat events and droughts will occur in these regions. Treatment for chronic kidney disease is expensive, resulting in early death for many of those affected. Without prevention, this epidemic is likely to accelerate due increasing temperatures and extreme heat. This project will develop a response and prevention strategy for an industrial sugary cane mill in Nicaragua. The project will seek to assess the immediate and long-term impact the strategy has on workforce health and productivity, the economic and social impacts on those affected by the disease, as well as community resilience and the economic burden on health systems. The project will benefit a broad range of local and national-level stakeholders, including local communities, government, health service agencies, and local and national decision-makers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.