"Do Not Work Alone in Fields"... "Killer Heatwave" Rages

[Anchor]

Amid a historic heatwave, casualties are mounting in rural areas. In particular, elderly farmers working alone in fields are repeatedly collapsing from heat-related illnesses.

Reporter Hong Seung-yeon has the story.

[Reporter]

Yellow police tape has been cordoned off around a chili pepper field.

On the afternoon of August 3, a woman in her 70s was found dead while working in a field.

At the time, daytime temperatures exceeded 35°C (95°F).

[Nearby Resident: She wasn't coming back, so we went out to the field to look for her and found her there. She must have died while working in that scorching heat.]

As the black plastic sheet used to protect crops absorbs heat directly, the soil surface is even hotter than the air.

Past 3 PM, the temperature has risen to 36°C (97°F).

Measuring the surface temperature of the field shows it well over 60°C (140°F).

According to official statistics from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency alone, about 300 heat-related illness patients and 6 deaths have occurred in fields this year.

Over the two days of August 3 and 4, 5 farmers lost their lives in the Chungcheong and Jeonbuk regions, and the scale of victims is expected to increase further when local government tallies are included.

Even drones have been mobilized to recommend halting work in the midday sun.

[The risk of heat-related illness is very high. Farmers, please refrain from outdoor work...]

However, farmers facing the harvest are unable to put down their work.

[Kim Nak-yun / Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province: We have no choice, even if it's hot. The crops we worked hard to grow will all dry up.]

[Yoon Yong-san / Asan, South Chungcheong Province: We can't stop. If we miss the time to harvest these, they rot and just go bad...]

Experts call for devising measures that reflect the reality of rural areas with many elderly people.

[Jung Soon-dul / Professor, Department of Social Welfare, Ewha Womans University: You can see this as a disaster caused by new climate change. Elderly people might have a lower physical perception of it. There is a need to send customized text messages or build a system to respond to it.]

With approximately 17% of heat-related illness patients occurring during farming over the past 3 years, the Rural Development Administration emphasized that people should refrain from working during daytime hours as much as possible and immediately stop working and rest if symptoms such as headaches or dizziness appear.

(Video reporting: Kim Min-chul, Video editing: Yoon Tae-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.