Follow guidelines for outdoor work in hot weather

With mercury rising and expected to remain high in the coming days, time has come to safeguard people working outdoors in oppressive heat conditions.

Recently, the weathermen have warned the mercury could exceed 40 degrees Celsius in the peak hours of the day this month and scale up in the weeks ahead to summer.

Understandably, construction workers and those engaged in other outdoor activities will be the worst affected due to their exposure to scorching heat.

Guidelines have been issued to contractors and firms who employee these labourers, based on directions issued by the Supreme Council for health. 

At most construction sites across the country, guidelines to such people working in challenging conditions have been issued in many languages, including Arabic, English and Urdu.

These guidelines detail among other issues, symptoms and risk factors for heat related illnesses, first aid and emergency response procedures for heat stress.

In the previous years, authorities have imposed a ban on outdoor work for labourers for a few hours from noon until evening during the peak summer months to avoid workers being exposed to heat and subsequent illness.

A similar initiative can be expected in the weeks ahead as weathermen expect mercury to soar and touch 43 to 45 degrees Celsius in June.

Those engaging workers, construction sites in particular, must take adequate safeguards to ensure they are not directly exposed to the sun. Besides giving these workers enough rest, they must also be given air-conditioning and fluid dispensation facilities.

Cases of workers fainting during working hours at peak temperature are quite common.

Workers newly assigned to outdoor activity during summer must be put through an acclimatisation programme, which is often stressed by Qatar’s health authorities.

Also, those workers coming back from vacation must be properly briefed before being entrusted with outdoor activities. Ideally, they must be subject to a thorough medical checkup before being allowed to work outdoors.

With Qatar stepping up infrastructure upgrade, thousands of workers are being recruited to various projects that are time-bound.

Companies engaging those workers must properly brief them about the SCH guidelines on outdoor work during peak temperature.

Generally, humid conditions prevail at certain times during summer, which may bring down the overall comfort level in the country. Extreme conditions might lead to cases of heat or sunstroke, against which clear vigilance is required.

Employers and workers must co-operate with the Supreme Council of Health and other law enforcing authorities to ensure that such cases are kept to the minimum.