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Essay / Dossier Sustainable Development and Work • Rev. bras. saúde ocup. 50 • 2025 • https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-6369/18024en2025v50eddsst8 linkcopy

Open-access Extreme weather events in Rio Grande do Sul and their impacts on Workers’ Health

AuthorshipSCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

    Abstract

    Introduction  Extreme climate events have increased in frequency and intensity, causing ever greater damage. In Rio Grande do Sul-RS, in 2024, the largest environmental disaster in the history occurred, with various environmental and human damages.

    Objective  This essay examined the direct impacts of the recent environmental crisis on workers, highlighting the priority of addressing climate changes in the training and practice of professionals in Worker’s Health and other health areas.

    Methods  Starting from the climate disaster in RS, academic publications, data and institutional information were examined, presenting reflections on this extreme hydrological event, its impacts on workers and the reconstruction process.

    Results  The disaster affected 96% of the municipalities, leaving much destruction, with serious impacts. 2,398,255 people were affected, including 183 deaths and thousands of homeless people. The disaster led to job and workplace losses, affecting workers and producing several health problems such as infections, traumas and mental disorders.

    Conclusion  Reconstruction is complex and must consider warnings of new extreme events. In order to improve resilience and reduce impacts, it is important to include climate disasters in the training and action plans of those working in worker health.

    Climate Disasters; Occupational Health; Floods; Landslides; Environmental Impact

    Resumo

    Introdução  Eventos climáticos extremos têm aumentado em frequência e intensidade. No Rio Grande do Sul (RS), no Sul do Brasil, em 2024, ocorreu o maior desastre ambiental da história, com diversos danos, ambientais e humanos.

    Objetivo  Os impactos diretos da crise ambiental recente sobre os trabalhadores foram examinados, destacando a prioridade de abordar mudanças climáticas na formação e na atuação dos profissionais da Saúde do Trabalhador e de outras áreas da saúde.

    Métodos  Partindo do desastre climático no RS, foram examinadas publicações acadêmicas, dados e informações institucionais, sendo apresentadas reflexões sobre este evento hidrológico extremo, seus impactos nos trabalhadores e o processo de reconstrução.

    Resultados  O desastre atingiu 96% dos municípios, com deslizamentos de terra e alagamentos persistentes, deixando impactos graves como 2.398.255 pessoas afetadas, 183 óbitos e milhares de desabrigados. O evento levou a perdas de empregos e locais de trabalho, atingindo trabalhadores e produzindo diversos problemas de saúde como infecções, traumatismos e transtornos mentais.

    Conclusão  A reconstrução é complexa e deve considerar os alertas de novos eventos extremos. Visando melhorar a resiliência e reduzir os impactos, é importante incluir os desastres climáticos na formação e nos planos de ação daqueles que atuam na saúde do trabalhador.

    Desastres Climáticos; Saúde do Trabalhador; Inundações; Deslizamento de Terra; Impacto Ambiental

    Introduction

    Climate change, such as extreme weather events, floods, cyclones/hurricanes, drought/extreme heat, air pollution, and other environmental imbalances are producing increasing damage. Extreme weather events (EWE), such as the one that occurred in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), located in the southern region of Brazil, in 2024, are increasing in frequency and severity, raising the likelihood of severe and widespread impacts on people and ecosystems1. Human influence on the climate system is clear: recent anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are the highest in history1.

    In 2024, on World Day for Safety and Health at Work (April 28), the International Labor Organization (ILO) prioritized the theme “The impacts of climate change on occupational safety and health”. It highlighted an increase in deaths and illnesses related to climate change, warning of additional risks to workers’ health (ST)2.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has already warned that climate change is impacting on our health workforce and infrastructure, reducing universal health coverage. In May 2024, the WHO Assembly made it official that climate change is a major threat to global health3. Territorially vulnerable people (for reasons of occupation or geographical location of housing), indigenous people, children, the elderly, and climate migrants are among the people most impacted by climate change4.

    Although there are different ways in which climate change can manifest itself, this essay has prioritized impacts related to hydrological EWE5, i.e. heavy rainfall, flooding, and landslides.

    Since 2020, RS has been affected by episodes of intense precipitation. However, the most extreme was recorded between the end of April and the beginning of May 20246. And in May 2024, the biggest climate disaster in Rio Grande do Sul’s history occurred.

    This had already been warned in 2022 by Marcelo Silva, a professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), at a public hearing in Pelotas. At the time, he pointed out that EWEs would be more frequent and that cities in Rio Grande do Sul were not prepared7. And indeed, they weren’t, just like most Brazilian cities.

    Workers in RS suffered serious consequences during and after the climate disaster. This affected not only rescue, civil defense and health workers, but also the entire world of work8.

    This essay examined the direct impacts of the recent climate disaster in RS on occupational health (OH), highlighting the priority of addressing climate change in the training and work of OH workers and others. In this way, it presents information that contributes to the qualification of OH teams, improving the prevention and management of environmental crises, addressing them as one of the priority themes of the workers health.

    Methods

    Considering the warnings issued by researchers and institutions, this essay describes the environmental disaster that occurred in 2024 in RS and analyzes the impacts on OH. Technical publications on environmental disasters, institutional documents, publications on public, environmental, and occupational health were examined, as well as the experiences of professionals and technicians involved in dealing with the extreme weather event. The information, including maps, monitoring data, damage estimates, and thematic discussions, was organized by addressing the general impacts of the climatic event, impacts on health and specifically on the world of work and OH, as well as discussions on reconstruction. The review of (academic and institutional) publications on climate events and the OH qualified the reflections on the disaster and the proposals to be implemented.

    The concept of climate disaster considered the definition of the National Secretariat for Civil Protection and Defense, which considers a disaster to be “the result of adverse events, natural or man-made, on a (vulnerable) ecosystem, causing human, material, and/or environmental damage and consequent economic and social losses”9 (p. 13).

    The Unified Health System (SUS) uses the broad concept of “worker” and, with this in mind, the RS State Health Department (SES-RS) has recommended including cleaning and reconstruction activities as a form of work10, which is the criterion adopted in this essay.

    What happened in RS? General impacts

    The preliminary warnings came earlier, as a preview. In 2023, there were three climatic events with voluminous storms (especially in September), which left 75 dead and a lot of damage, mainly in the Vale do Taquari.

    At the end of April, May, and June 2024, the biggest environmental disaster in the history of RS took place, showing the effects of a hydrological risk. It rained a lot and, this time, for a long time. It started at the end of April (April 27) and hit the regions of Santa Cruz, Santa Maria, Quarta Colônia, and then the Serra Gaúcha. As well as deaths, homeless people, and destruction, many municipalities were left isolated for several days, without electricity, internet, road access, and having supply difficulties.

    In April and May, the accumulated monthly rainfall reached 667 mm and 803 mm respectively, an increase of more than four times what was expected for the period6. On May 2, the Ogimet website, which surveys rainfall worldwide, showed in its ranking that eight cities in RS were among the 10 with the highest volume of rainfall in the world in 24 hours (Table 1)11.

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    Table 1
    : Municipalities with the highest rainfall in 24 hours in the world, 05/02/2024

    schools), and 22 schools served as shelters12. On that day, the flood hit Porto Alegre (POA), causing immense chaos, affecting the bus station, the city hall, the historic center, the , the administrative center and others.

    The following day, the event was made official as the biggest environmental disaster in the history of RS. Not only because of the number of people affected (510,585) and deaths (55), but also because of the extent of the tragedy, which at the time had affected 317 municipalities12. This number was later increased to 478 municipalities (96.2% of the total).

    On May 7, there were more than 450,000 points without electricity and 211 municipalities without phone/internet service and 649,000 properties without water12. In POA, only a third of the water treatment plants were working, affecting thousands of homes, hospitals, shelters, and other essential services. Even people living in properties that weren’t flooded were left without water for weeks, living with the sanitary crisis.

    Throughout May, the number of people affected exceeded two million12. There were landslides in mountainous areas, roads and bridges destroyed/interrupted, and many floods. Houses were flooded or destroyed and/or swept away entirely by the current.

    Landslides, technically called mass movements, are the main cause of deaths in mountain and hillside regions. They can occur naturally or anthropogenically and are related to the steepness of the slopes, the geomorphology of the sites, land use and, in particular, excessive rainfall13.

    Mass movement scars are visible marks of soil and/or rock movement, usually on hillsides. Researchers from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), using satellite images, mapped 8,019 mass movement scars that occurred in the first two weeks of the event, between April 27 and May 13, 202413, which characterize the largest soil/rock movement event ever to occur in Brazil. Municipalities in the Serra Gaúcha, those close to hillsides, and Quarta Colônia, showed the highest number of scars13.

    Education was also affected: throughout May, the storms affected 1,064 schools (250 municipalities) and 380,436 students12. The Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) suffered serious damage to its general archive, located in the basement flooded by the floods, as well as books from the UFSM publishing house.

    In its final report, Civil Defense said that 478 municipalities were affected, with 2,398,255 people affected, 27 missing, and 183 deaths confirmed12. In addition, more than 16,000 indigenous people (5,183 families) were affected by the floods14.

    In the Vale do Taquari, the Taquari-Antas River received heavy rains from the Serra Gaúcha, gaining strength and speed along the way, sweeping away everything in its path. Plain regions, especially those close to the Guaíba, experienced prolonged flooding, with high water levels. Municipalities to the south of Lagoa dos Patos were also flooded and had to evacuate part of the population.

    In POA, where there is a flood protection system, due to maintenance and design faults, the vast majority of pumps and floodgates did not work when they were needed15. For several days, the level of the Guaíba rose, invading POA even through the culverts. On May 5, the level reached 5.35 meters, the highest flood in history16. Salgado Filho International Airport was submerged for around two months and, due to the damage, remained closed until the end of October.

    Researchers from the UFRGS Hydraulic Research Institute (IPH/UFRGS) mapped the main hydrographic regions affected17. They estimated the flooded area at 4.27 thousand km2, affecting around 556 thousand people, 301 thousand of whom were urban households and 7.8 thousand in rural areas17.

    The vast impacts of this climatic event are likely to last for a long time, causing suffering for workers in various sectors and overloading public structures and civil servants.

    When the waters of the Guaíba basin began to recede, a new environmental challenge arose: staggering proportions of garbage (solid waste), which was in the houses, buildings, streets, and garbage produced by the floods, such as: furniture, household appliances, utensils, mattresses, clothes, blankets, machinery, equipment, vehicles, and building rubble.

    Researchers from IPH/UFRGS and a partner company have estimated that 46.7 million tons of construction debris are scattered on the streets18. This is in addition to other types of waste that generate various risks, including for cleaning/reconstruction workers. Institutions linked to the environment have warned of the importance of separating and correctly disposing of this waste, which could be recycled, and have issued guidelines on the correct disposal of solid waste generated by this climatic disaster.

    Health impacts

    In 2024, the WHO warned that climate change is a threat to health3and is affecting access to health services, widening many existing inequalities. Of the 15 indicators that monitor health risks related to climate change, ten reached new records in the last measurement19. Despite extreme heat and drought events, episodes of extreme precipitation are increasing, leading to major flooding and various health problems19.

    Climatic disasters with flooding often produce an increase in various diseases such as leptospirosis, hepatitis A, tetanus, respiratory infections, skin infections, various traumas, among others20, many of which affect workers in particular. In addition, various studies have highlighted that extreme weather events often cause mental health problems among those affected, either directly or indirectly4,21,22.

    The climate disaster in RS also had a variety of impacts on the health sector, such as damage to the physical structure of establishments, equipment, and supplies and, at the same time, an increase in the demand for care due to various health problems, including infections, trauma and mental disorders.

    Researchers from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) estimated that around 3,000 health facilities were affected by the floods23.

    By May 10, 135 municipalities had reported damage to 448 health facilities: 353 in Primary Care and 95 in Specialized Care24. On May 27, the SES-RS estimated that it had lost 266 buildings in 81 municipalities, the majority (66.5%) of which were basic health units (UBS). In addition, many hospitals were affected, some, as in the Vale do Taquari, hit by floods several times in a few months.

    In Canoas, in the metropolitan region, the Emergency Hospital had to be evacuated in a hurry. In addition, 19 out of 27 UBS, three emergency care units (UPA) and four psychosocial support centers (CAPS) were affected. In POA, 32 UBS were closed (23.5% of the total) and the Mãe de Deus Hospital was evacuated due to flooding24.

    Several hospitals and health services have had to manage shortages of water, electricity, internet, and supplies, as well as reductions in staff and health professionals. This involved services of various types and varying degrees of complexity. Hospitals, maternity wards, emergency rooms, UBS, laboratories, etc. were affected. Elective procedures were postponed or canceled due to the risk of shortages of supplies. It should be noted that many health services remained without electricity and internet for long periods, impacting on care and making health records difficult.

    The increase in leptospirosis was to be expected, as infection increases in contact with floods. Even considering reporting failures, the number of cases and deaths from leptospirosis in RS was higher in these three months than the annual average of cases over the last decade. According to SES-RS, between April 26 and July 18, RS had 7,129 notifications, with 675 confirmed cases and 3,573 still under investigation; 26 confirmed deaths and six under investigation25.

    SES-RS data shows that there has also been an increase in leptospirosis due to occupational exposure: 103 cases of work-related leptospirosis in 2023 (an average of 8.6 cases/month), while by November 2024 there were 192 (17.5 cases/month)26.

    In addition to the acute trauma of the disaster, workers have suffered significant personal and collective losses. As a result, an increase in new cases of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, panic, and sleep disorders is expected, as well as a lack of control of more serious psychiatric cases (many had their treatment suddenly interrupted)4,22.

    Work-related mental disorders have more than doubled in RS compared to 2022, from 141 cases in 2022 to 399 in 2023 and 626 in 202426. Thus, SES-RS, through SES Ordinance No. 300, allocated an extraordinary transfer to municipalities in public calamity, to hire new mental health teams, to expand and qualify mental health care.

    Impacts on mental health were also described among health workers after 10 years of a flood event in Santa Catarina (SC). They described dealing with effects of the climate disaster on the population under their care as a traumatizing and mentally distressing experience21.

    Impacts on the world of work and workers

    During extreme weather events, workers are usually the ones who are exposed earlier, more intensely, and for a longer time to various types of risk, compared to the general public8.

    Outdoor workers (especially those in agriculture and construction), many migrants, and informal workers, with precarious housing and work, are among the populations most vulnerable to climate disasters8,27,28. The populations of workers most affected by climate change include agricultural workers, construction workers, first responders and firefighters, health professionals, fishermen, and other workers exposed to outdoor weather conditions for long periods8,28.

    This also happened at the RS event:

    Workers continued to be workers, although they were also victims. Workers lost their homes [...], their belongings, their loved ones (family, neighbours, friends, colleagues) [...] and pets. They also lost their workplaces, jobs, income [...] and some lost their cities. Even so, they went back to work, out of a need to support themselves, commitment and other reasons [...]. Public administration workers [...] received additional workloads, with damaged infrastructure and ignorance of the “bureaucratic ways” to support the affected population. They had to assimilate the disaster, act in response and, at the same time, plan the reconstruction and/or future of the territory29 (p. 3).

    Considering the complexity of the response to a disaster, in all its phases and impacts, as already explained, care for OH needs to be prioritized. Workers from different professional categories were exposed to various risks at work and on the road. Many of them - including firefighters, military personnel, health professionals, civil defense workers, and others, as well as volunteers - worked on rescues, assisting victims, supporting shelters, cleaning up/rebuilding cities and highways, among others. This increased exposure to biological, physical, chemical, and ergonomic risks (including psychosocial risks), as well as work accidents, as has already been pointed out2,8. Many jobs have literally gone down the drain. Companies were destroyed or damaged by the direct impact of floods/mass landslides. Others have lost raw materials, products or had difficulty selling them. Costs have risen rapidly. Outsourcing companies had to cancel contracts and lay off workers.

    The RS Department of Finance has shown the economic impact for companies in the affected areas, where there was a sharp drop in turnover in May (Figure 1)30.

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    Figure 1
    Economic activity: number of companies in the affected area that have issued invoices

    Compared to the same period in 2023, there was a negative variation in sales volume in almost all segments, especially agricultural inputs, which fell by 41%30.

    As well as losing income and jobs, the workers were affected in different ways. Some lost family/friends and/or their housing, affecting their working conditions. This context can be aggravated by socio-economic factors, such as precarious work and/or housing8. The storms affected infrastructure, with bridges and highways, state and federal, being closed for several weeks. Workers who worked or studied in municipalities where access was blocked had problems getting around.

    The economic impact of this climatic disaster on jobs was wide-ranging and even companies that were not directly affected suffered the consequences. According to the General Register of Employed and Unemployed (Caged), in May 2024, all Brazilian Federative Units (UF) recorded positive balances, except for RS, which had more layoffs than hires. Compared to May 2023, of the 23,000 jobs lost in May 2024, 22,000 were in RS, according to the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE)31.

    In the 418 municipalities in RS where a state of calamity was declared, at least 23,300 private establishments (9.5% of the total in these municipalities) would have been directly affected, as well as 334,600 jobs (13.7% of the total, reaching more than 80% in the hardest hit municipalities)32.

    The Monthly Services Survey of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) shows that in May, RS’ services sector fell by 15.1%, compared to the same month a year earlier (while Brazil’s increased by 5%)33. Monthly industrial production also fell in May: by 26.2% in RS, in contrast to a slight increase of 0.9% in the rest of the country34. The Trade sector was the exception, showing an increase of 13% over the same period.

    In agriculture, the Rio-Grandense Association of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Undertakings (Associação Rio-Grandense de Empreendimentos de Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural - Emater-RS) identified 9,158 locations affected35by the weather events. Various rural facilities (houses, sheds, silos, greenhouses, and poultry houses) were affected, as well as problems with the flow of produce in 4,548 communities. Thousands of water sources were contaminated (4,570), leaving 34,500 rural families without drinking water35.

    Agricultural production suffered significant losses in various crops, stored products, and initial plantings. 48,674 grain farmers were affected, especially corn and soybeans. There was also severe damage to horticulture, yerba mate, and fruit growing, affecting 8,431 fruit growers among others, as well as livestock35. Animal losses were substantial: around 15,000 dairy and beef cattle, 15,000 pigs, and 1.2 million birds, among others. In addition to the direct damage to the animals, vast expanses of pastureland were affected and the destruction of roads made it difficult to supply feed and transport animals to slaughterhouses. In total, more than 32,000 farmers were affected35.

    Family-run agribusinesses and cooperatives suffered damage to property, equipment, raw materials, logistics, and marketing channels. 76.6% of cooperatives, with around 10,000 members, were affected. Soil fertility losses due to water erosion were recorded in 405 municipalities, affecting 2,706,683 hectares35.

    Another work-related aspect was the destruction of documents. In various public services, administrative documents and patient records were lost, among other things. Many workers have lost their work documents, identification documents, insurance documents, property, and personal belongings such as letters, photos, and other mementos of their lives. Several of these losses have produced disorders and affected mental health.

    In POA, the flood inundated the general archive of the Regional Labor Court of the 4th Region (TRT4), with three million documents36. The TRT4 has been awarded the “Memory of the World” label by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) because of the historical value of the collection, which includes cases from 1935 to 2000. The flood affected 1 million labor lawsuits cases; most were final and unappealable, but some were still in temporary storage. There is currently a restoration effort, which involves risks as the documents were submerged for around a month36.

    Discussion - Reconstruction and the future

    Hydrological hazards (floods, storms), as well as mass movements (landslides and rockslides), were the main types of disaster in this extreme event in RS. This is consistent with observations confirming that they are the most common types in Latin America5. Both types imply an increase in the occurrence of work-related health problems of varying severity (Injuries, illnesses, and death)8.

    Despite the recurrence of hydrological risk events in some Brazilian regions, preparation to deal with them has not been sufficient. In addition, there is significant resistance from some managers and legislators, as well as initiatives to reduce permanent preservation areas (PPAs) or relax environmental rules in PPAs. Shortly before the climate disaster, Law 16.111/2024 was published in RS, allowing interventions in PPAs for irrigation purposes, which generated controversy because it put them at risk37. In the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, which experiences frequent climatic events, a study evaluated the case of extreme rainfall in 2022, with landslides, torrents, and floods. Several affected areas had already been identified as being at risk in 2017, and few changes have been made since then. The authors highlighted the socio-environmental injustices of these disasters and questioned the omission of public administrations38.

    On the other hand, in regions hit by disasters, which have preventive actions and response, emergency, prevention, and contingency plans to deal with them, the damage to life and property is less and can even be avoided9,38.

    In RS, the initial mobilization of various sources in solidarity with those affected helped with rescue and emergency support for the victims. But the scale of the disaster has made the reconstruction effort much longer and more complex. According to technicians from Fiocruz23, the reconstruction process is likely to take months or years, with different challenges and increasing costs over time (Graph 1).

    thumbnail of Graph 1
    Graph 1
    Impacts and costs of extreme weather events over time

    The initial priority was to resolve the issue of housing and survival for people who were in shelters or displaced. To this end, the “provisional cities” were set up: five reception centers for people who had lost their homes and were in shelters. To protect jobs and workers, emergency financial support programs were launched for companies, from various sources.

    A partnership among several multilateral international banks (the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the BRICS Bank, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, among others), together with federal and state bodies, announced emergency funds of over 15 billion dollars to finance the reconstruction project in Rio Grande do Sul, structured in three phases39:

    1. Emergency: assisting the affected population, clearing roads, and other needs. Preparation of a Damage and Loss Assessment (DALA), estimating the effects (damage and cost assessment), the impacts (household and macroeconomic), and recommendations for resilient reconstruction.

    2. Recovery: recovery of some services and implementation of DALA.

    3. Reconstruction: based on the DALA report, draw up the reconstruction plan39.

    For the next phases of reconstruction, there are several fronts, and a collective definition (affected municipalities, the state, and civil society) is recommended for the planning and execution of reconstruction actions, which should include an interdisciplinary, technically-based approach, community involvement, and transparency. The state government, in technical partnership with the University of Vale do Taquari, has been coordinating the revision of the Urban Development Master Plans of seven municipalities in Vale do Taquari, a region frequently hit by floods. The project is being discussed in public hearings and will include three stages: identifying risk zones and defining guidelines for safe occupation; drawing up a Master Plan and Urban Perimeter, per municipality; and guidelines for the Construction and Building Code.

    Researchers at IPH/UFRGS have produced and made available the “Repository of geographic information for decision support - Rio Grande do Sul ”, with maps, databases, and analysis, mapping mass movements using satellite images, geological risk assessment, and others. This information can help with planning and data analysis, providing a technical basis for emergency decisions17and helping to prepare for the future.

    Climate scholars warn that there will be more extreme weather events in the future1,8, so the reconstruction of the RS needs to consider which areas are the safest and most resilient, which are here to stay. With environmental planning and warning systems, it is possible to know where the event will become more serious and to move people away from risk areas in advance7. “Urban infrastructures, city structures, and the population need to be moved away from the environments most at risk, which are the lower, flatter, and wetter areas, hillside areas, riverbanks, and cities in valleys”7. On the other hand, wetlands can play an important role in preventing flooding and should serve as a “sponge” during periods of heavy rainfall.

    The concept of “sponge cities” was developed and implemented in situations of frequent flooding, such as in China, New York, and the Netherlands40. This proposal involves techniques for retaining rainwater, slowing down rivers, and adapting cities so that they have flooded areas when necessary. The model can also be useful during periods of drought, as the stored water can be used for irrigation and to keep urban vegetation in good condition. Thus, the proposed reconstruction, especially of health systems, needs to be adapted to climate change, sustainable, and climate resilient.

    It is important to include technicians and representatives of workers from different backgrounds in the labor market in the planning, prevention, response, and reconstruction process. Many aspects are better understood by those who experience the peculiarities of day-to-day work.

    Conclusion

    Climate change currently poses significant global threats to health, particularly to Workers Health2,3,28. Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity, causing damage to various aspects of life and work2. And workers are facing an increase in morbidity and mortality related to climate change8,27.

    This environmental theme, including proposals for action, is still not properly covered in the training of occupational health professionals. For all types of climate risk to workers, especially extreme events, research is needed into the causality and prevalence of risks, along with surveillance to identify and plan prevention and control actions27. Occupational health professionals need to prepare for future climate crises by analyzing events that have occurred, deepening their knowledge, defining and training emergency protocols, learning from disasters, and planning actions in the field of health.

    In addition to improving the network of weather stations and radars6, measures such as: virtual reality applications, portable devices to support health and safety training for workers, emergency teams, and qualified support personnel; community and citizen preparedness and resilience; making institutional websites available for research, which can support health teams to act in emergencies, and in the effects of disasters on health, both acute and long-term, are suggested. In a multi-center study, health workers considered that continuing professional education, communication training, patient education materials, action alerts, and guidance on how to make health care workplaces sustainable41would be important actions for dealing with climate challenges and their impacts on OH.

    In addition, it is suggested that studies be carried out to examine the delayed effects of extreme weather events, supporting preventive and damage mitigation approaches. No less important is the recommendation to expand mental health care measures for the affected population, especially public and private workers, with a view to providing psychosocial support and preventing work-related mental disorders.

    References

    • Data availability:
      The entire data set supporting the results of this study has been published in the article itself.
    • Presentation at a scientific event:
      The authors report that the study has not been presented at a scientific event.
    • Funding:
      The authors declare that the study was not subsidized.

    Edited by

    • Editor-in-Chief:
      Leila Posenato Garcia

    Data availability

    The entire data set supporting the results of this study has been published in the article itself.

    Publication Dates

    • Publication in this collection
      07 Apr 2025
    • Date of issue
      2025

    History

    • Received
      11 Aug 2024
    • Reviewed
      09 Dec 2024
    • Accepted
      16 Dec 2024
    Creative Common - by 4.0
    This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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