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Framing Future of Work Considerations through Climate and Built Environment Assessment of Volunteer Work Practices in the United States Equine Assisted Services

Authors :
Jae-Hong Park
Kimberly Tumlin
Sa Liu
Source :
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 10385, p 10385 (2021), International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Volume 18, Issue 19
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2021.

Abstract

The foundation of healthy workplace design is an understanding of work practices. Volunteers comprise the majority of the workforce in care centers using horses to address human health issues. Documentation is lacking on protections for worker well-being in equestrian microenvironments which are known to have the potential for dust exposures. Climate acts as a master variable in equestrian facility design and ventilation usage to address dust and temperature concerns. Using climate as an independent variable, our objective was to characterize space usage, safety, environmental control, and organizational practices through a national survey of equine assisted programs. We found that more fully enclosed indoor arena spaces were in cold/very cold and mixed-humid climates (p = 0.0114). Annually more volunteers (p = 0.0073) work in these two climate groups averaging 100 volunteers per location. A total of 34% of all facilities, regardless of climate, do not use mechanical ventilation systems (e.g., fans). As volunteer worker time in the arena increased, time in the barn microenvironment tended to decrease (p = 0.0538). We identified facility designs, ventilation usage, and worker arrangements to refine the scalability of future air contaminant monitoring and to provide frameworks for education, workplace design, and prevention of exposure to dust.

Details

ISSN :
16604601
Volume :
18
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....3b3604d0a195dc209cb4835868777d01
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910385