Impacts of extreme meteorological conditions on workers and community health in Central America

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Project Summary/Abstract: Increasing evidence shows that heat stress, especially in workplaces, is a major health threat in Central America under current conditions that will likely worsen with climate change. This proposal requests partial support for the research-training workshop ‘Impacts of extreme meteorological conditions on workers and community health in Central America’ planned for July 2022 in San Salvador, El Salvador. The specific aims are as follows. Aim 1: Address the EOH risks and vulnerabilities in Central American countries, with special emphasis on the consequences of meteorological modifications that are critically affecting this area. Aim 2. Encourage and enhance communication, understanding and collaboration between practicing clinicians, basic scientists, clinical researchers, epidemiologists, toxicologists, experts in exposure sciences, special interest groups (including industry and Union representatives), governmental risk assessors and regulatory experts to improve detection and prevention of EOH hazards. Aim 3. Organize the conference tutorials, invited and free presentations, discussions, debates, demonstrations and interactions to document major new research advances, facilitate identification of specific research gaps, formulate hypotheses and potential experimental designs to answer to emerging scientific questions. Aim 4. Facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration of practitioners and scientist/investigators to help foster or initiate new multidisciplinary research approaches to advance the EOH science. Aim 5. Produce deliverables including the workshop outputs on: i) identification of urgent EOH hazards; and ii) consensus on sustainable intervention policies in Central America. This documentation will be disseminated after the workshop through various media, such as journal articles, news outlets and social media. This proposal seeks support to provide travel grants to 20 participants from the Central American countries that lack the resources to participate in the EOH research training workshop. The anticipated impact of the proposed workshop on EOH scientists from the region includes increased awareness and knowledge of Central American EOH threats and intervention strategies, especially focused on the prevention of health risks related to the meteorological modifications critically affecting this area. Given the worldwide temperature increase, the challenges experienced in Central America can be projected to the United States in the immediate future. Our proposed meeting will generate transferable new insights that will be useful to increase preparedness in the US to prevent climate-related health impacts.