The Ministry of Public Health has conducted a number of training workshops on heat exhaustion. In co-operation with Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, Hamad Medical Corp and Qatar Petroleum, the workshops were attended by 200 occupational health and safety supervisors in companies operating in the country.
The workshops aim to educate people on heat exhaustion, its symptoms and ways to prevent it as well as increasing awareness about it among occupational health and safety supervisors in companies.
Through these workshops and awareness campaigns on heat exhaustion, the ministry aims to protect workers and prevent occupational diseases resulting from unhealthy work places, said HE Dr Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani, Director of the Public Health Department at the Ministry of Public Health.
The prevention of heat exhaustion is very important and all employers should provide training to employees to understand heat exhaustion and how to prevent it, and employers must take the necessary measures to protect workers from heat exhaustion, he added.
The awareness efforts were undertaken by occupational health and safety supervisors by organising field visits to work sites aimed at educating workers on heat exhaustion.
Jaber al-Marri, Head of Occupational Safety and Health Department at the Labour Inspection Department at the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, reviewed the efforts of the Labour Inspection Department to protect workers from heat exhaustion, especially through decision No16 of 2007 which sets working hours from 15 June until 31 August to be no more than five hours in the morning and ending by 11.30am, and that work shall not begin before 3pm in the evening.
He also talked about necessary procedures for safety of workers and the penalties imposed on companies in the event of violations in this regard.
An official at the event. Below: Workshop participants at the event.
