Fernando G. Benavides
Professor of Public Health in the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences (MELIS) at Pompeu Fabra University, researcher at the Centre for Occupational Health Research (CISAL) at IMIM-PSMar, and scientific director of the Ibero-American Observatory on Occupational Safety and Health
This technical report, based on scientific information, highlights the magnitude of the impact of the climate emergency on the health of working people.
According to ILO estimates, the risk of injury due to accidents at work, which is only the acute (immediate) effect of heat stress, increases by 17% during heat waves. Among the chronic effects, the ILO points out that there will be 26.2 million people with chronic kidney disease attributable to heat stress in the workplace. In addition, the economic impact of this significant disease burden is highlighted, given that it affects the working population.
However, as highlighted by the National Institute for Safety and Health at Work (INSST), Spain has the MoMo system to provide good estimates of mortality in the general population, but not to monitor this impact on the health of working people. The DELTA system for reporting fatal accidents at work only attributes 4% to extreme temperatures (including cold). It is therefore urgent to improve information systems in order to monitor the real impact of heat stress in Spain. This is essential in order to evaluate the preventive measures to be adopted in companies in accordance with current legislation, which I will discuss below.
Secondly, and this is its main contribution, this technical report focuses its recommendations on mitigating the effects and stresses the urgent need to adopt feasible preventive measures specifically aimed at protecting workers from heat stress, especially vulnerable groups such as those working outdoors in agriculture, construction, gardening, street cleaning, etc. The report does not propose adaptation measures and explicitly acknowledges this.
However, while accepting this approach, most of the mitigation measures proposed rely on:
- The responsibility of those at risk.
- Individual medical surveillance.
- Technological solutions, which, while recognising their importance, take a back seat to collective organisational (or administrative, as the report puts it) measures, which, according to the European directive on health and safety at work and the Spanish law on occupational risk prevention, must take precedence over individual measures.
In any case, collective and individual preventive measures must be regulated by rules (decrees, collective agreements, etc.) that oblige employees and companies to comply with them. This aspect is not addressed in the report and requires a flexible inspection system with executive powers in cases of non-compliance, as has been seen in various situations in Spain in recent weeks.