Extremes in Temperature in the Workplace Physical Agent - Essay Example

TRЕMЕS IN ТЕMРЕRАTURЕ IN THЕ WОRKРLАСЕ РHYSIСАL АGЕNT” University Student Id Course Date Introduction Heat stress has been associated with psychological effects on the employees where it results in reduction of enthusiasm for work. In Hong Kong, construction workers have been greatly affected by heat stress as the nature of their job exposes them to high temperature (Tam and Fung, 2011). The productivity of the employees can be reduced in the working environment that has high temperatures. The management of an organization has the responsibility of ensuring that the working environment has the necessary temperatures that cannot affect the productivity of the workers negatively. Ensuring that the working environment has the right temperatures can be crucial in the process of ensuring that productivity of the employees is maximized and their health safeguarded (Choudhry and Fang, 2008). The pollution taking place globally has been affecting temperature levels that have led to extremes of temperatures that do affect the working environments. The exposure to high temperatures, poor ventilation, solar radiation, and humidity can increase physical stress especially in the construction industry in Hong Kong. Heat disorder and fatigue of the employees associated with working at extreme temperatures are likely to affect the productivity of the workers. The employees who are engaged in physical labor are at risk of experiencing increased intra-body production of heat because of being engaged in physical labor. Extremes of temperature in workplace The exposure to extremes of temperatures, poor ventilation, and solar radiation are likely to cause physical stress in the work environment. Over time, exposure to extremes of temperatures is likely to result in psychological and physical disorders. In the workplace that is exposed to extreme temperatures is wise to ensure a working schedule that does ensure balance between work and rest of the employees. Such working schedule can be crucial in the process of ensuring workers health, comfort, and improvement in productivity (Law, Chau and Chan, 2001). For instance, coming up with job rotation can assist as different working stations have different exposures to temperatures hence assisting in managing the stress of workers associated with extreme temperatures. Other organizations are proving frequent break time during work process to the employees to help to manage the impacts of working in workplaces that are exposed to extreme temperatures. Working in hot weather need to consider the health of the workers through ensuring that there are cool down facilities and protective equipment that can assist in ensuring safety of the workers. In the construction industry, workers are exposed to high temperatures making the working environment stressful hence coming up with the best strategies for ensuring that the health of the workers is safeguarded crucial. Many construction companies have been ensuring that the working schedule do allow enough time for rest to minimize the duration that the workers are exposed to high temperatures at work (Law, Chau and Chan, 2001). The effects of high temperatures are highly felt in the industries that are labor intensive making it necessary to ensure that the necessary conditions are provided to improve the productivity of the workers. However, the time spent when working in the construction industry is affected by high temperatures hence affecting the productivity levels as the health of the workers can be put at risks by exposing them to high temperatures for long duration. Climate change can be associated with the increased temperatures where the construction industry has been facing many challenges in the process of providing a good working environment. This is because high temperatures are said to cause stress to the workers making them unable to maximize their potential in production. Besides, some are said to die due to the exposure to high temperatures while at work especially after working for a long duration. The number of the workers working in the construction industry are said to increase by around 7% of the labor force is working in the construction industry in Hong Kong (Tam and Fung, 2011). Considering the nature of the work in the industry, the workers are exposed to heat stress that does pose high risks of high temperature related illnesses. Heat stress has caused some deaths that could have been prevented by the government has been highly concerned with the general welfare of the workers in the construction industry who are exposed to humid and hot summer. The government should then ensure implementation of some practices in the construction sites that can include rotation of duties, regular breaks, working during morning hours among other practices that can minimize the heat stress to the workers. However, some of these practices are not followed due to the increased competition in the construction industry in Hong Kong making the workers be exposed to high temperature for long hours (Law, Chau and Chan, 2001). The construction workers are forced to work long hours and under an irregular schedule that exposes them to the risks of dying because of the exposure to high temperature for long hours. Therefore, the government of Hong Kong needs to ensure that there is effective implementation of the policies governing workers in a construction site. Besides, despite the bad working environment due to high temperatures, construction workers are working for more hour than the set standards where the construction workers in a country like Hong Kong are working for more than 54 hours weekly (Law, Chau and Chan, 2001). The physical working conditions that are undesirable have been considered to the major stressors to the construction workers. The productivity of the workers is said to be reduced due to the physical conditional that do not guarantee the workers comfort. However, some initiative is being taken to ensure that the wellbeing of the construction workers is protected during the hot seasons but the initiatives have not been fully implemented. Some of the initiatives that have been geared towards managing extreme temperatures do include introducing more time for resting and starting working work early in the morning aiming at beating the heat wave (Zhuang, et al. 2009). The initiatives are expected to ensure that the work rate and productivity of the workers is maximized while ensuring minimization of the health hazard related due to the exposure to heat conditions for long duration. The exposure to heat stress d affects the efficiency of the workers and even threatens their survival in extreme cases. There are four elements that can be used in evaluating thermal conditions where the elements do include air movement, absolute humidity, and average radiant temperatures. Sunlight is the primary component of the heat load of an environment and air movement is considered essential in the evaporation of the sweat on human bodies. Increased urbanization and global warming has led to increase in temperature where some tropical regions like Hong Kong are experiencing temperature of around 34 degrees, low wind speed, and high humidity (Tam and Fung, 2011). These conditions do cause of a lot of heat stress to the workers leading to even deaths to the workers who do not take cautions when working in high temperatures. The laws governing the construction workers have not spelt out the limits of human work under hot working environment leading to suffering of many construction workers. The work that is physical demanding and tough turn to be challenging when working in hot working environment. Such working environments are likely to cause stress to the workers leading to reduction in their productivity. Some of the effects of working under heat stress can include impairment of the functioning of the brain and psychological stress while working leading to the lack of motivation and commitment of the workers (Leung, et al. 2005). Besides, the behavioral and psychological factors of the workers working in high temperature environments can be affected by the gender, age, physical fitness, hydration, drugs, and the medical condition of the worker. The control of heat stress in the construction industry can be made using various ways that can include controlling the exposure to heat, controlling the working hours and creating working schedule that can ensure employees have rest from the high temperatures. Effects of extreme temperatures Human beings are warm blooded with the ability of regulating their internal temperatures at around 37 degrees. The moment the body temperature increases or falls can result in serious illness or even death. The body temperatures do change depending on the exposure of different weather conditions. The weather conditions in the working conditions need to ensure that the necessary temperatures are availed to ensure that the workers are productive. The employers have the duty of ensuring that the working environment has the right levels of temperatures that cannot harm the health of the workers (Zhuang, et al. 2009). Failing to ensure that the workers are not exposed to extreme temperatures can result in lack of motivation making the workers unproductive. Besides, the exposure of the workers to a high temperature for long hours can result in illness or death in some cases. The employer has the duty of ensuring that the necessary initiatives are utilized in the process of preventing the workers from the effects of the extreme temperatures. The productivity of the employees is affected by the temperature extremes in various ways. First, the moment the temperatures are high the worked are exposed to heat stress that affects their function making their productivity deteriorate. Besides, the productivity of the employees can decline due to the illness that can be exposed to the workers working in extreme temperatures. The direct cooling or warming is responsible for affecting the work participation of the workers, as they tend to be active at normal temperatures but not extremes. Second, the productivity of the employees can be affected by temperature extremes through failure of the high temperature working environment to motivate the workers (Ng, et al. 2012). The workers working in high-temperature environments are likely to lack the job morale hence leading to many mistakes that can affect their efficiency. Besides, their commitment can be lowered due to the working environment that exposes the workers to health risks. Therefore, it is considered important for the employers to ensure that the workplace is conducive and considerate to the welfare of the workers through creating an environment that does not harm the health of the workers. High temperatures in the working environments do result in dehydration as the workers lose a lot of body water through sweating in the process of cooling the body. Dehydration can be dangerous as it results in the loss of body weight hence it is necessary to ensure that the workers in high temperature working environment take a lot of water to replace the lost water in the body. The workers who are dehydrated are likely to complain of a headache, irritability, fatigue, and nausea that can affect the comfort of the worker (Leung, et al. 2010). At extreme case of dehydration, some workers can faint due to the drop in the levels of blood in the body that can result in low blood pressure. Fainting pose some dangers to the workers as it can result in injuries where the worker can faint while working in a raised areas. Some workers can also suffer from skin disorders due to the exposure to the high temperatures. For instance, the moment when the sweat cannot find a way to escape blisters are likely to develop on their skin. Conclusion Workers can employ some alternatives to protect themselves from extreme temperatures. For instance, in a working environment that is cold wearing clothes that can help in the prevention of loss of heat to the environment surrounding. This can assist in making the workers be productive despite the extreme temperatures in the working environment. Clothing warmly by the workers can assist in protecting the workers in working environment that is very cold from radiant of heat. On the other hand, the working environments that are extremely hot require clothing can allow loss heat loss by the body. However, the workers who are overweight are said to be prone to harm by the extreme temperatures due to the imbalance of heat transfer of their bodies. The exposure to extreme temperature does result in thermal discomfort. The human body does respond to changes in heat in various ways where sweating is considered as the best way of losing heat in the body. The moment one stops sweating can face serious harm as body temperatures rise due to slow heat loss in the body. This makes the workers have different responses to the thermal environment in the working environment. References Choudhry, R.M. and Fang, D., 2008. Why operatives engage in unsafe work behavior: Investigating factors on construction sites. Safety science, 46(4), pp.566-584. Law, A.K., Chau, C.K. and Chan, G.Y., 2001. Characteristics of bioaerosol profile in office buildings in Hong Kong. Building and Environment, 36(4), pp.527-541. Leung, M.Y., Ng, S.T., Skitmore, M. and Cheung, S.O., 2005. Critical stressors influencing construction estimators in Hong Kong. Construction Management and Economics, 23(1), pp.33-44. Leung, M.Y., Chan, Y.S. and Yuen, K.W., 2010. Impacts of stressors and stress on the injury incidents of construction workers in Hong Kong. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 136(10), pp.1093-1103. Ng, E., Chen, L., Wang, Y. and Yuan, C., 2012. A study on the cooling effects of greening in a high-density city: an experience from Hong Kong.Building and Environment, 47, pp.256-271. Tam, V.W. and Fung, I.W., 2011. Tower crane safety in the construction industry: A Hong Kong study. Safety science, 49(2), pp.208-215. Zhuang, H., Chan, C.K., Fang, M. and Wexler, A.S., 2009. Size distributions of particulate sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium at a coastal site in Hong Kong.Atmospheric Environment, 33(6), pp.843-853. Read More