Heat Stroke in the Work Environment: Case Report of an Underestimated Phenomenon

Maricla Marrone, Luigi Buongiorno, Pierluigi Caricato, Fortunato Pititto, Benedetta Pia De Luca, Carlo Angeletti, Gabriele Sebastiani, Eliano Cascardi, Giuseppe Ingravallo, Alessandra Stellacci and Gerardo Cazzato ()
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Maricla Marrone: Section of Legal Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy
Luigi Buongiorno: Section of Legal Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy
Pierluigi Caricato: Section of Legal Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy
Fortunato Pititto: Section of Legal Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy
Benedetta Pia De Luca: Section of Legal Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy
Carlo Angeletti: Section of Legal Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy
Gabriele Sebastiani: Section of Legal Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy
Eliano Cascardi: Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy
Giuseppe Ingravallo: Section of Molecular Pathology, Department of Precision and Regenerative Medicine and Ionian Area (DiMePRe-J), University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy
Alessandra Stellacci: Section of Legal Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy
Gerardo Cazzato: Section of Molecular Pathology, Department of Precision and Regenerative Medicine and Ionian Area (DiMePRe-J), University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-10

Abstract: Average global temperatures continue to trend upward, and this phenomenon is part of the more complex climate change taking place on our planet over the past century. Human health is directly affected by environmental conditions, not only because of communicable diseases that are clearly affected by climate, but also because of the relationship between rising temperatures and increased morbidity for psychiatric diseases. As global temperatures and the number of extreme days increase, so does the risk associated with all those acute illnesses related to these factors. For example, there is a correlation between out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and heat. Then, there are pathologies that recognize excessive heat as the main etiological agent. This is the case with so-called “heat stroke”, a form of hyperthermia accompanied by a systemic inflammatory response, which causes multi-organ dysfunction and sometimes death. Starting with a case that came to their attention of a young man in good general health who died while working unloading fruit crates from a truck, the authors wanted to express some thoughts on the need to adapt the world of work, including work-specific hazards, in order to protect the worker exposed to this “new risk” and develop multidisciplinary adaptation strategies that incorporate climatology, indoor/building environments, energy use, regulatory perfection of work and human thermal comfort.

Keywords: heat-related injuries; work-related deaths; climate change; autopsy; forensic pathology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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