It warns of the extreme heat risks in the workplace

Workers around the world need better protection than intense heat as climate change causes more frequent heat waves – this is the conclusion of a new report from the World Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organization.

The report says millions of workers are subjected to heat stress, which affects their health and performance. It calls on governments, employers and workers to cooperate to develop adaptation strategies.

Although the World Health Organization has warned several times of the health risks of severe heat, this is its first report since 1969 specifically about heat stress at work.

The director of the environment, the environment, climate and health Rüdiger Krech says that the results should be an invitation to wake up.

“This is not just a discomfort. It is a real healthy danger,” he told the BBC. “If you work in heat and the body temperature increases through, over a longer period, more than 38 ° C, you are at risk of severe stress associated with heat, stroke, kidney failure, and dehydration.”

Adaptation is needed because heat waves are no longer rare. The World Meteorological Organization says that the past decade has witnessed the warmer temperatures, as the year 2024 was the most hot year.

In parts of Europe, the temperatures of 40 ° C (104f) and more now are not unusual. In Africa or the Middle East, it can rise to 50 ° C. The average surface temperature in the Mediterranean in July was the warmer on the record at 26.68 ° C, according to Mrator. this week Met office in the United Kingdom said This summer was on the right track to be one of its warmest since the records began in 1884.

Heat waves do not affect health, the World Health Organization that warns it, as it also affects production. The new report shows that each degree of temperature is higher than 20 ° C, productivity decreases by 2 %.

At the same time, accidents increase. During the 2023 thermal wave, the National Accident Insurance Fund in Switzerland estimated that when temperatures rise more than 30 degrees Celsius, work accidents increased by 7 %. Sofa said that the reasons included focus issues, as workers’ bodies struggled to adapt to the intense heat, and the lack of sleep, caused by the heat.

With workers in the field of construction and agriculture in particular, some European countries are already looking at how to adapt them to make work safer during heat waves. Last month, the Italian government signed an emergency decree, after agreeing to a protocol with unions and presidents to prevent people from working during the hours of the day.

In the Swiss cantons in Geneva and Tukino, the construction was stopped during the Hitort 2023 wave, a step welcomed by the largest union in Switzerland, UNIA.

“They are often on construction sites they are already behind the specified date, so they are truly pressure to continue the work,” Niko Lutz of the University of Unia Lutz told Swiss TV.

“That is why we need construction companies to bear responsibility, and we say that it is above a certain temperature, it is not responsible, it is very hot, and we all accept that the work takes a little longer.”

The World Health Organization report, although it appears specifically to the workplace, also warns that the elderly, with chronic diseases, and young people are at a special risk during heat waves. This means that schools as well as workplaces need adaptation.

In Germany, schools can announce “Hitzefrei”, when temperatures rise above a certain level. In the 1970s, eighties or 1990s, this often meant that when the thermometer rose from 30 ° C, the school bell rang twice, and everyone can return to the home.

But that was when these temperatures were rare. Now 30 ° C is increasingly common, and schools are frequently stipulated in the lessons. Whoever is Rüdiger Krech is the reason. “We have seen during Covid that stopping the school … our school children are still still. Just thinking that the easy solution is that we stop education, and it is often the most expensive children.”

When schools returned to Switzerland last week, temperatures throughout the country were more than 30 degrees Celsius. Teachers ’advice: Take your lessons to the pool. But, as Dagmar Rosler, President of the Swiss Teachers Association, told Swiss Media, “We cannot do all our classes in the swimming pool – we have things that we need to teach.”

Mrs. Röler, who may expect the World Health Organization to adapt, called for school buildings, which are scheduled to be renewed, to include new ventilation systems, and even air conditioning.

“I just want people to remember that this is related to making sure that our children can learn in a comfortable environment for them,” she said. “And our teachers can work in possible circumstances.”

The World Health Organization report says that adaptation must be made in consultation with everyone, from governments, to employers and workers, to local councils, health and education authorities. Rüdiger Krech has already has a single proposal that may not only resume schoolchildren in the United Kingdom, but also for schools with financial hardship with little money for renewal.

“The school uniform in the United Kingdom, are they adapted to heat waves? These are questions that people want to think.”

But there is no avoidance that adapting the workplace, schools, or even hospitals to deal with increased heat will require investment. Many governments, especially in Europe, re -focus their spending on defense, while climate change adaptation has declined in the priority list.

Mr. Krech warns that this can be a short vision. “Just to think, I do not have money for all these changes. Well, think twice. Because if you need to stop production, if you have your healthy health effects due to the extended heat waves, I think about the productivity losses that you have. To think only, I do not have money, so I will allow them to stay as it is, this is the most expensive solution.”