This summer’s hottest week in recorded history just ended. In July, southern Europe had temperatures as high as 46C (115F), which prompted reports of heat-related illnesses and even worker fatalities.
How well-prepared is the UK for heat-related workplace difficulties given that experts predict that the country will likewise experience rising temperatures in the next decades? What could be done to make workplaces in the UK more able to handle the heat?
In the sustainability and infrastructure division at the World Bank, economist Patrick Behrer has discovered three ways that heat impacts workers. In order of importance, he says, are “first on their productivity, second on how many hours they work, and third on how secure they are at work.”
“The effects of scorching temperatures on productivity among employees range from, say, a 1% loss to an 8 or 9% reduction. Depending on how exposed one is to the heat, estimations can vary. Workers in agriculture and construction are more exposed.
A 44-year-old man passed away in July while repainting a zebra crossing in Lombardy, the northern part of Italy, in temperatures as high as 40C (104F). Although the exact cause of mortality is unknown, rising temperatures will result in an increase in the number of non-elderly persons who pass away from heat-related illnesses. On a delivery tour in Greece, a 46-year-old guy passed away from heatstroke.
In accordance to the Department for National Statistics, around six out of ten (62%) respondents believe that by 2030, increasing UK temperatures will have a direct impact on them. Although legislation regarding employees’ rights is urgently needed, it looks improbable.
There is no maximum permissible temperature for UK workplaces, however there is an acceptable minimum legal temperature of 16C in offices. All employees have a right to “a working atmosphere where risks to their safety and health are properly controlled,” according to the Health and Safety Executive, but these rights aren’t always respected at work.
The GMB trade union’s national director of health, safety, and the environment, Dan Shears, claims that the organization’s request for a maximum working temperature has “nothing to do with shutting workplaces – it’s about holding employers accountable for keeping workplace temperatures tolerable. We require a strategy comparable to the noise rules currently in place, so that appropriate action is done at particular temperatures.
The dangers to employee health are obvious. Behrer discovered that “if you go to work on a day that is above 100F [37.8C], you’re 10 to 15% more vulnerable to injure yourself at work.” This was based on an analysis of workplace compensation claims made to the California Workers’ Insurance Corporation from 2000 to 2017.
The obvious response to a heat wave is to find every way possible to stay cool. According to Behrer, “Air conditioning’s ability to lessen the harmful effects of heat exposure is, from a strictly efficient standpoint, unmatched.” He does, however, note that there are expenses associated with air conditioning, including higher electricity use and localized heating impacts via the air conditioning systems themselves.
Local doesn’t merely refer to the muggy interior of an air conditioner. The National Grid was forced to start up the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal plant in June when temperatures in some regions of the UK reached 30C (86F), in part because of an increase in the use of air conditioners.
Behrer argues that the best course of action is to optimize air conditioning rather than completely eliminate it. He emphasizes the significance of “improvements in power generation as well as transmission that enable the usage of air conditioning, without expanding fossil-fuel emissions for producing that electricity.”
Greenpeace, meanwhile, promotes the heat pump as a flexible solution. Georgia Whitaker, its UK climate campaigner, claims that they are a far more energy-efficient option because they can be used for cooling as well as heating.
“Heat pumps will be more cheaper to run for both heating and cooling in winter and cooling in summer, and will cut emissions in the process, as long as the workplace is appropriately insulated, which will also assist keep the structure cooler on hot days. Win-win situation.