Paduda: Human-caused Global Warming is Very Real — and So Are the Consequences

Three things hit the news last week that make it crystal clear our world is changing much faster and much more than we thought possible. All have major implications for occupational health and workers’ comp.

Massive fires in the Pacific Northwest and Canada are burning hundreds of thousands of acres along with entire towns. The smoke is billowing across the country, harming air quality in most of California, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming and big chunks of Nevada, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and some midwestern states.

Most alarming, the Gulf Stream and other critical currents in the Atlantic Ocean are weakening. So what…you say. Well, these currents drive much of our climate. As warm water from the tropics moves north it raises temperatures in our Northeast and northern Europe; colder water heads south further moderating temperatures in hotter parts of the world. If these currents slow – which scientists believe is increasingly likely – colder places will get a lot colder, hotter places a lot hotter, and rainfall patterns will undergo significant changes.

Methane, a greenhouse gas 84 times worse than CO2, is flooding our skies. Methane is responsible for a quarter of global warming. Oil and gas production and transport, massive thawing in Siberia leading to fires and huge methane releases, agriculture and garbage are the major sources – all of which are getting worse.

There are two different implications – climate-caused occupational injuries and illnesses, and mitigation’s impact on jobs.

Of course, firefighting is a very dangerous occupation, and we need more and more firefighters every year to battle the increasingly large, hot, and dangerous forest and grassland fires. That’s just the most obvious; expect a major investment in forest management involving controlled burns, firebreak and road construction, replanting, and water course management, all with high injury frequency and severity profiles, exacerbated by heat exposure and poor air quality.

Outdoor workers in the southern US are experiencing hotter days and nights, conditions made even more challenging by increasing humidity in the southeast. With major investment in infrastructure about to kick in, tens of thousands of workers will be working outside in ever-hotter weather throughout the country.

An increasing number and severity of weather events will also drive more claims.

Over the longer term, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will also create tens of thousands of jobs. Repairing and replacing gas lines, capping leaking oil and gas wells, building solar and wind generating capacity, upgrading electrical infrastructure, installing hundreds of thousands of electric vehicle chargers, capping manure lagoons and building carbon capture and storage facilities means tens of thousands of high frequency/high severity jobs.

The insurance industry, regulators, NIOSH, financial rating agencies, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Climate Change and Global Warming Task Force are among the organizations focusing on the impact of human-caused global warming on insurance. Individual insurers need to invest in risk mitigation and prepare for more claims for heat-related conditions among construction, agricultural and energy workers, and respiratory problems for workers exposed to smoke.

Employers and insurers that scope out risks and prepare for an increasingly hotter world will do well; those who ignore or downplay the very real impact of human-cause global warming will see their finances go up in flames.

By Joe Paduda

Joseph Paduda, the principal of Health Strategy Associates, is a nationally recognized expert in medical management in group health and workers' compensation, with deep experience in pharmacy services. In addition to consulting with managed care organizations, employers, health care providers, insurers and private equity firms, Health Strategy Associates conducts regular surveys on managing work comp pharmacy costs, utilization review, bill review systems and claims systems.

Paduda is also the prolific author of the controversial Managed Care Matters blog and a founder of Health Wonk Review, a collaborative blog on health care policy.

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