Today's post was shared by US Dept. of Labor and comes from www.iwh.on.ca
Study of work-related heat stress finds heat strokes, sun strokes and other heat illnesses spike over groups of days and disproportionately affect those on the job less than two months
On hot, sultry summer days, it’s common to see ministries of labour issue alerts telling workers to stay cool, drink a lot of water and take longer breaks if necessary. Public health officials will also urge people to stay indoors and check in on their elderly neighbours.
If employers were ever to issue a workplace equivalent of such alerts, they should ask workers to keep an eye on their young colleagues—especially the new ones on the job.
According to a study by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) on heat stress, young men working in manual occupations are most vulnerable to extreme heat. The more inexperienced they are on the job, the more likely they are to need time off work to recover from heat stroke, sun stroke, fainting and other forms of heat illnesses.
These heightened risks are seen even after accounting for the fact that this group of workers—young, manual labourers new to the job—are already at greater risk of work injury, says Melanie Fortune, a research associate at IWH and the lead researcher of the study on heat stress.
For example, manual workers accounted for 52 per cent of all lost-time claims, but they accounted for 59 per cent of all heat-related lost-time claims. Likewise, workers who were less than one month on the job accounted for 4.2 per...
[Click here to see the rest of this article]On hot, sultry summer days, it’s common to see ministries of labour issue alerts telling workers to stay cool, drink a lot of water and take longer breaks if necessary. Public health officials will also urge people to stay indoors and check in on their elderly neighbours.
If employers were ever to issue a workplace equivalent of such alerts, they should ask workers to keep an eye on their young colleagues—especially the new ones on the job.
According to a study by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) on heat stress, young men working in manual occupations are most vulnerable to extreme heat. The more inexperienced they are on the job, the more likely they are to need time off work to recover from heat stroke, sun stroke, fainting and other forms of heat illnesses.
These heightened risks are seen even after accounting for the fact that this group of workers—young, manual labourers new to the job—are already at greater risk of work injury, says Melanie Fortune, a research associate at IWH and the lead researcher of the study on heat stress.
For example, manual workers accounted for 52 per cent of all lost-time claims, but they accounted for 59 per cent of all heat-related lost-time claims. Likewise, workers who were less than one month on the job accounted for 4.2 per...
