Hundreds of thousands of workers in California and other states perform strenuous tasks in hot weather, and they are at risk of experiencing heat-related injury or illness.  Although heat stress is  generally known to affect personal health and performance, its wide-ranging impacts in agriculture are not often easy to discern, and opportunities to avoid harm from it are missed.  Broader adoption of workplace practices and other measures to counter risks of heat depend upon employers, direct supervisors, and production workers themselves better understanding heat stress physiology.  

   This website is designed to support research and extension work that will reduce personal and business costs of heat stress.  It offers scientific and legal references, practical management guidelines, research instruments, working drafts, and other resource links to inform choices made by managers, workers, and educators. 

   The site complements projects conducted by members of the DANR Agricultural Ergonomics Workgroup that apply ergonomics principles to improving field efficiency of farm labor and making farm jobs safer, less physically demanding and debilitating. 

This site is under development at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley.  Please send a note with any suggestions, comments, and questions.