Experts consider that it will be necessary to promote better adaptation of work activities to extreme temperatures in summer in Spain. And this appears as one of the objectives of the Observatory of Health and Climate Change (OSCC), presented yesterday in Madrid. Sources from the observatory deemed it advisable to update the current regulations in order to adapt working conditions when a heat wave is declared. Last year the Government approved a royal decree for this purpose, but it was prepared urgently and is considered insufficient and could be improved.
“We must better adapt work activities to the new culture of heat, a scenario to which we were not accustomed,” added the same sources. Among the options that are making their way are “the possibility of advancing or delaying schedules”, regulating the use of uniforms in a more rational way or guaranteeing that certain tools handled by workers are also less harmful.
The Health and Climate Change Observatory (in which the ministries of Ecological Transition, Health and Science participate) aims to update knowledge about the health impacts of climate change. And one of its main tasks will be to more precisely define the meteorological and health risk thresholds that will justify the alerts.
In this way, we want to make a finer adjustment when delimiting the areas with the same climatic characteristics and health risk due to high temperatures, in order to be able to accurately alert and guide the most exposed people.
Likewise, we want to guarantee that the warnings take into account not only the heat wave but also the multi-risk effects associated with extreme temperatures (danger of fire, pollution levels...). This organization will also have a practical part aimed at generating response capabilities for the entire population.
In this sense, recommendations will be prepared so that municipalities can prepare their local plans for heat waves, in which the best measures can be identified to prevent mortality due to high temperatures in each case.
“The climate crisis is a public health crisis and the effects of the emission of greenhouse gases not only increase the temperature of the planet but also create a climate that is more hostile to life, making us more overwhelmed, more stressed and It makes people sicker and have greater morbidity and mortality,” said the Minister of Health, Mónica García.
“We need an Observatory to protect people from climate change, especially vulnerable people,” said the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera. “A poorly given alert or a lack of information on how to react to a warning can lead to the loss of human life and can lead to greater conditions and a greater need for care in hospital emergency services. Therefore, institutional collaboration is essential,” said the minister.
