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Objectives: To assess the population health impact of high temperatures on workplace health and safety by estimating the burden of heat‐attributable occupational injury in Australia. Study design, setting: Retrospective observational study; estimation of burden of occupational injury in Australia attributable to high temperatures during 2014–19, based on Safe Work Australia (work‐related traumatic injury fatalities and workers' compensation databases) and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data (Australian Burden of Disease Study and National Hospital Morbidity databases), and a meta‐analysis of climate zone‐specific risk data. Main outcome measure: Burden of heat‐attributable occupational injuries as disability‐adjusted life years (DALYs), comprising the numbers of years of life lived with disability (YLDs) and years of life lost (YLLs), nationally, by Köppen–Geiger climate zone, and by state and territory. Results: During 2014–19, an estimated 42 884 years of healthy life were lost to occupational injury, comprising 39 485 YLLs (92.1%) and 3399 YLDs (7.9%), at a rate of 0.80 DALYs per 1000 workers per year. A total of 967 occupational injury‐related DALYs were attributable to heat (2.3% of occupational injury‐related DALYs), comprising 890 YLLs (92%) and 77 YLDs (8%). By climate zone, the heat‐attributable proportion was largest in the tropical Am (12 DALYs; 3.5%) and Aw zones (34 DALYs; 3.5%); by state and territory, the proportion was largest in New South Wales and Queensland (each 2.9%), which also included the largest numbers of heat‐attributable occupational injury‐related DALYs (NSW: 379 DALYs, 39% of national total; Queensland: 308 DALYs; 32%). Conclusion: An estimated 2.3% of the occupational injury burden in Australia is attributable to high ambient temperatures. To prevent this burden increasing with global warming, adaptive measures and industry‐based policies are needed to safeguard workplace health and safety, particularly in heat‐exposed industries, such as agriculture, transport, and construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background With high temperature becoming an increasing health risk due to a changing climate, it is important to quantify the scale of the problem. However, estimating the burden of disease (BoD) attributable to high temperature can be challenging due to differences in risk patterns across geographical regions and data accessibility issues. Methods We present a methodological framework that uses Köppen–Geiger climate zones to refine exposure levels and quantifies the difference between the burden observed due to high temperatures and what would have been observed if the population had been exposed to the theoretical minimum risk exposure distribution (TMRED). Our proposed method aligned with the Australian Burden of Disease Study and included two parts: (i) estimation of the population attributable fractions (PAF); and then (ii) estimation of the BoD attributable to high temperature. We use suicide and self-inflicted injuries in Australia as an example, with most frequent temperatures (MFTs) as the minimum risk exposure threshold (TMRED). Results Our proposed framework to estimate the attributable BoD accounts for the importance of geographical variations of risk estimates between climate zones, and can be modified and adapted to other diseases and contexts that may be affected by high temperatures. Conclusions As the heat-related BoD may continue to increase in the future, this method is useful in estimating burdens across climate zones. This work may have important implications for preventive health measures, by enhancing the reproducibility and transparency of BoD research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]