UK: Work Should Be Banned During Heat Waves
The UK’s influential Climate Change Committee (CCC) is recommending measures that would allow people to stop working during heat waves. According to Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, the government is carefully considering the proposal, which would require companies to allow employees to take time off during extreme heat, according to The Telegraph.
The Climate Change Committee issued this recommendation on temperature limits in a new report advising ministers on how to cope with climate change. Among other things, it includes measures to protect people from increasing heat, floods, and droughts. While air conditioning in public buildings is recommended, one of the main proposals is a maximum working temperature
According to the CCC, a maximum working temperature would help reduce health risks to employees caused by high temperatures and encourage employers to invest more in cooling systems. “Businesses are largely responsible for investing in their own adaptations but must ensure that workplaces and working practices are safe for employees, including for those working outside,” the report states. As examples, it highlights Spain, where the maximum permitted indoor temperature is 27 °C for sedentary work and 25 °C for light physical work.
The CCC also warned that by 2050, significantly warmer summers are predicted, with temperatures in southern England potentially consistently exceeding 40 °C and occasionally reaching as high as 45 °C. At the same time, heat waves in the UK will become more frequent and last longer.
In addition, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is working on heatwave contingency plans, but the agency is not expected to set a maximum temperature by law. However, the agency plans to update the Code of Practice on Working Conditions, first approved in 1992, and has stated that the safe minimum temperature should be 13 °C for heavy physical work and 16 °C for light physical work.
However, it is the unions that have fought hardest for a maximum working temperature. One concluded that even the current recommendations of the CCC regarding maximum temperatures are insufficient and that people working outdoors should also be included. According to another union, the maximum working temperature should be 25 °C, as “scorching heat” can be life-threatening.
At the same time, several other “key” organizations have also actively put climate change back on the agenda. For example, the WHO European Commission on Climate and Health asked the WHO to declare a climate health emergency. The UN General Assembly, however, endorsed an international court ruling stating that climate action is a legal obligation for nations, not a political choice. None of them, however, seem to be taking into account a recently published article in which even the so-called mainstream of climate science has largely abandoned the most extreme climate scenario, according to which the world was supposed to warm by 4–5 °C by 2100, which in turn was supposed to lead to catastrophe. Now, however, based on current trends, scientists have concluded that such a sudden and extreme climate change is not on the horizon, and thus a climate catastrophe of that scale will not occur. Many scientists have been explaining this more realistic view for years, adding that the role of CO2 and the use of fossil fuels as causes of climate change is either marginal or insignificant.
This article (UK: Work Should Be Banned During Heat Waves) was created and published by Epp Tuul and is republished here under “Fair Use”
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