What is it about?
Extreme heat stress has a deep impact on physiological reactions, which results in occupational injuries and deaths. In this paper, an attempt is made to understand the impact of heat stress on construction accidents in Oman. Some important factors such as time of accidents and health related factors including Body Mass Index and blood pressure are particularly discussed with respect to a hot and humid working environment in GCC countries. The paper also provide some suggestions on how to protect workers from heat stress in this region.
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Why is it important?
International Labor Organization data for the year 2015 indicate that every year 108 000 workers died at the construction site due to different occupational hazards and health conditions. Similarly, the global temperature statistics for the year 2011–2015 published by the World Meteorological Organization, shows that the earth temperature, on average rose by 1°C in 2015. Construction workers are expected to be affected more by heat stress comparatively more than the workers in other industries, due to the body heat generation caused by physically demanding work in hot and humid working environment. It is therefore necessary to find the solutions that how the impact of heat stress on workers safety and productivity can be reduced. This article provide a comprehensive literature on the heat stress with a particular focus on GCC construction industry. Based on the literature review and the results of this paper, some suggestions are provided that how construction workers in GCC can be protected from heat stress.
Perspectives
Construction industry is growing rapidly in different developing countries and thus recognized as a main source for providing jobs to different labours. However, at the same time it is recognized as one of the risky industries. There is potential for construction organisations to reduce the cost associated with accidents either direct or indirect by properly understanding the factors that affect workers safety performance. Exposure to extreme heat is a renowned occupational health hazard which results in illnesses ranging from pain to death. It appears that a very less attention was given to this factors in GCC countries. I thus, therefore tried to explore this factors and find the impact on construction workers. While there were some challenges to collect the data, however finally I was able to get sufficient data which help not only to understand the impact of heat stress on construction workers in GCC but also helped me to develop some suggestions that how these workers can be protected from heat stress without compromising the productivity.
Dr. Tariq Umar
Kingston University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Heat Stress, a Hidden Cause of Accidents in Construction, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Municipal Engineer, May 2018, ICE Publishing,
DOI: 10.1680/jmuen.18.00004.
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