This week saw the temperature fall to the lowest so far this year, with the temperature falling this can only mean one thing, (well apart from Halloween, bonfire night and the imminent arrival of Christmas) winter is here.
Many construction, maintenance and engineering workers are required to work outdoors, so as an employer there are certain procedures that should to be followed to ensure thermal comfort: that is the state of someone’s mind when they are too hot or cold.
- Employers have to ensure that all Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is fit for use and appropriate for working in a cold environment.
- Employers have to provide adequate facilities for heating up in, and encourage the drinking of plenty of hot fluids.
- Try to encourage more frequent breaks.
- Ergonomics of working in a cold environment.
Employers have to carry out proper risk assessments and address the hazards found in the assessment, when carrying out the assessment remember there are four environmental factors and two personal factors that have to be taken into consideration.
- Air Temperature, this is the defined as the temperature that surrounds your body; we measure it in Celsius or Farenheit.
- Thermal Radiation (Radiant Temperature) this is heat given off from the sun, heaters, cookers and furnaces. This will have a greater influence on our bodies than the air temperature.
- Humidity, if there is a high humidity in the air this will prevent our bodies from being able to evaporate our sweat, which is our bodies’ way of getting rid of heat.
- Air Velocity, this is the speed that air travels across our body.
After looking at the environmental factor we have to look at the personal factors which can affect our thermal comfort.
- Clothing, we all have to wear clothing, it’s just how much and when, too much clothing in a hot area will cause us to sweat and too little in a cold area will cause us to suffer from hypothermia, chilblains and frostbite. The proper PPE has to be assigned and fit for use in a given situation.
- Peoples work rate, this is best described as the way that we work, harder we do an action the more our bodies react.
As an employee there are several things that can be done to help with thermal comfort such as wearing layers of clothing which can be added or taken off depending on cold/heat. In hot/cold areas taking plenty of breaks will give your body time to re-adjust to a normal working temperature also plenty of warm drinks in cold will help keep your body temperature up.
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