this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
187 points (99.0% liked)

United Kingdom

4036 readers
195 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in [email protected] or [email protected]
More serious politics should go in [email protected].

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A maximum indoor temperature working law giving people a day off if workplace temperatures surpass 30C should be mandated by government, a new report recommends.

The report by the Fabian Society thinktank highlights inequalities in who bears the brunt of the impacts of climate breakdown and puts responsibility on bosses and landlords to stop people from overheating.

An increasing number of people are dying from excessive heat in the UK. More than 4,500 people died in England in 2022 due to high temperatures, which was the largest figure on record. Between 1988 and 2022, almost 52,000 deaths associated with the hottest days were recorded in England, with a third of them occurring since 2016, data from the Office for National Statistics shows. During the same 35-year period analysed, more than 2,000 people died in Wales due to the warm temperatures.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (4 children)

What about forges and other industrial places where it gets hot as balls?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Most jobs don't require working with dangerous chemicals, but some do. Some jobs will be the exception, but should also be the ones that have specific safety training and equipment for those conditions which won't be in place for office or other similar jobs.

People working at a forge should have training on recognizing symptoms of overheating and adequate cooling and hydration practices (even if a lot of them don't) as forges can't be cooled in a feasible way. Office workers or people in jobs where it is not expected to be hot are far more likely to accidentally overheat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Maybe they could retrofit air conditioning for worker safety?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

I work on an installation where there's a forge. I took a tour of it when I first started working and there's no way in hell you can effectively air condition that place without being extremely wasteful. Maybe I'm wrong and other forges have figured it out, but I'd love to see proof of it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Nah, no way to do it with molten metal being right there. It's a part of the job, and a reason why a lot of countries don't have a "maximum temperature" law, but have a "minimum temperature" one.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

That sounds like an edge case that may need more creative solutions, or implementing breaks, etc. But I'd wager that for most workplaces this isn't the case.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

You can get air fed suits for toxic environments. I have seen these used in car manufacturing. From accounts of the lads there, they were very heavy to work with.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Right? Every restaurant in the country would be closed immediately and indefinitely.

Not that that's a terrible thing or anything

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

And from my experience- every local council service.