logo
When is it too hot to work?

When is it too hot to work?

Euronews7 days ago
From Italy's farms to Germany's warehouses and beyond, soaring summer temperatures pose serious health risks to workers across Europe.
Heat stress can cause heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and death, even hours or days later. The strain the body puts on itself trying to keep cool can also cause kidney problems and worsen heart disease, respiratory issues, and mental health.
These risks came to the fore during brutal heatwaves earlier this summer, when a 51-year-old street cleaner in Barcelona collapsed and died hours after finishing her shift. Spanish authorities are investigating whether the heatwave caused her death.
Unlike other environmental health hazards such as air pollution, there are no uniform rules on heat exposure for workers in the European Union, leaving member countries to make their own laws.
But when is it actually too hot to work – and what can workers do to protect their health during heatwaves?
Understand the risks
High temperatures are not the only health risk during heatwaves. The Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) is considered a better signal of heat stress for physically active workers because it takes into account heat, humidity, wind, and sunlight.
The WBGT includes four threat levels: low, elevated, moderate, high, and extreme. Depending on the region, temperatures above 29 to 32 degrees Celsius are considered extreme threats to workers' wellbeing, raising the risk of heat illness significantly.
Extreme heat is more dangerous for people working outside in physically demanding jobs, for example construction workers, agriculture workers, and emergency services.
But indoor employees – including those who work in offices – can also face risks, particularly if they are in poorly cooled or ventilated buildings, according to EU-OSHA.
Globally, extreme heat kills nearly 19,000 workers per year, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the EU has seen a 42 per cent increase in heat-related workplace deaths since 2000.
Pay attention and take action
Many people may not realise they are at risk of heat stress, particularly if they are young and otherwise fit, warned Alessandro Marinaccio, research director of the occupational and environmental epidemiology unit at the nonprofit National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL) in Italy.
'There is a lack of awareness about the risk for the health of workers due to occupational exposure to extreme temperature,' Marinaccio told Euronews Health.
His team developed a tool to map daily risk levels for workers in Italy, depending on how physically strenuous their job is and whether they work in the sun or the shade.
Health experts say workers should also pay attention to their physical symptoms.
'Workers should be mindful of elements such as dizziness, fatigue, headache, nausea, muscle cramps, fainting, and confusion,' said Ignacio Doreste, a senior advisor at the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which represents labour groups.
If you are feeling symptoms of heat stress, stop working, drink water, remove unnecessary clothing, and sit down in a cool, shaded area. If you cannot cool down within 30 minutes, seek emergency medical care.
Know your rights
Several EU countries have rules to protect workers from heat stress, including Germany, Slovenia, Hungary, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, France, and Italy.
In France, for example, employers must make fresh drinking water available to workers and adapt their workplaces and working hours to protect them from extreme heat.
In parts of Italy, the government banned outdoor working during the hottest hours of the day during the last major heatwave in July.
Generally, countries with heat-related laws set work limits of around 29 to 30 degrees Celsius for high-intensity work, 30 to 31 degrees for moderate work, and 31.5 to 32.5 degrees for light work, according to the ILO.
The EU also mandates that employers protect workers' health and safety from occupational risks overall, though there is no specific legislation on heat stress.
Across the EU, 'whenever a worker is facing a threat to his own physical integrity, they have the right not to work,' Doreste told Euronews Health.
But 'enforcement is extremely needed,' he added, especially because 'diseases related to occupational heat are commonly underreported'.
The ETUC has called for new laws to protect EU-based workers during heatwaves, including the right to medical examinations and the right to skip work without consequences if an employee believes working in extreme heat will put them at risk.
If you are unsure about your rights during a heatwave, check your work contract or consult with your company representatives or trade union.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

EU regulators back climate-friendly inhaler
EU regulators back climate-friendly inhaler

Euronews

time9 hours ago

  • Euronews

EU regulators back climate-friendly inhaler

European regulators have given their backing to a new eco-friendly inhaler that could help curb health care's climate impact. Drugmaker AstraZeneca said the new inhaler has a fraction of the carbon footprint of its existing model, which uses a gas propellant to deliver a dose of medicine to patients and is already available in the European Union for adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). These types of inhalers may be small, but they pack a powerful punch, producing the same type of greenhouse gas as air conditioning and heat pumps. In the United Kingdom, they cause 3 per cent of the National Health Service's (NHS) overall carbon emissions, according to Asthma + Lung UK. Many of these gases are now being phased out in the EU for environmental reasons, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). An EMA advisory committee issued a positive opinion of the new inhaler on Friday, and the European Commission, the EU's executive body, will make a final decision in the coming months. Other inhalers that do not use gas propellants are already available, and AstraZeneca's new model has a similarly low carbon footprint. The new option 'means patients and their clinicians now don't need to feel like they have to choose between the most appropriate treatment and the planet,' Pablo Panella, AstraZeneca's senior vice president of global respiratory and immunology, said in a written comment to Euronews Health. The new inhaler is already available in the United States, China, and Japan, and the United Kingdom signed off in May. AstraZeneca said it plans to transition its inhalers to the new model across the EU in the coming months, and that it hopes to roll the model out worldwide by 2030. The EMA said it 'works the same way and gives the same results in the lungs and the body [as] the product currently on the market'.

Why has the UK banned imports of French and Italian cheeses?
Why has the UK banned imports of French and Italian cheeses?

Local France

time3 days ago

  • Local France

Why has the UK banned imports of French and Italian cheeses?

Bad news for UK residents who like iconic French cheeses such as artisan-produced brie, roquefort and reblochon or Italian classics such as pecorino ... these will no longer be available after the UK banned their imports from France or Italy. However if you are in those countries - or any other EU country - you can enjoy them to your heart's content. So what's going on? The UK's agriculture ministry Defra says that all imports of cheeses made in France or Italy with unpasturised milk are now banned. This affects any cheese made with raw milk or unpasturised milk - including some of France's most famous cheeses such as Vacherin, Roquefort, Mimolette and Tomme. Brie made by small artisan producers is likely to be unpasturised, although factory-produced brie can be made with pasturised milk. Advertisement It affects fewer Italian cheeses as the big names such as Parmesan are made with pasturised milk, but artisan-produced mozzarella is often made with raw milk, as is pecorino. You can find a full list of the affected cheeses here . Any cheeses produced before May 23rd are exempt, if the importer can produce the necessary paperwork - meaning that shortages will become apparent gradually, as some aged cheeses will continue to be imported over the next few months. The rules mostly affect commercial imports, but theoretically also apply to holidaymakers wanting to bring back a wheel of lovely, stinky European cheese. All of the above cheeses remain on sale throughout the EU. So why the UK ban? It's due to an outbreak of a cattle disease with the imaginative name of Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) which, you will be surprised to hear, causes lumps on the skin of affected cattle. In France the disease is known as dermatose nodulaire contagieuse (DNC). It is spread by the bites of flies and mosquitoes. Italy confirmed its first case in Sardinia on June 21st, 2025, leading the UK to revoke Italy's LSD-free status and suspend unpasturised imports. France reported its first LSD case near Chambéry on June 29th. Quarantine zones are in place in the affected areas with a vaccination programme for the cattle, but cheese sales have not been suspended. The UK's import ban also affects the import of live cattle. Can Lumpy Skin Disease be spread by eating cheese? No, there is no risk to humans from eating cheese that has been produced by a cow suffering from LSD, and in fact humans cannot get LSD under any circumstances. The UK government says that it is acting to prevent the spread of the virus among British cattle - hence the ban on live cattle imports. It says that the virus can survive in raw milk, including cheese made with raw milk. So if a British cow ate a brie sandwich then it could get Lumpy Skin Disease. That sounds like a small risk? Frustrated cheese sellers in the UK say that the ban is disproportionate. Cheese-mongers told The Grocer magazine that the ban is "costly, illogical and deeply frustrating", saying there is no risk to people from these cheeses. Advertisement Shane Holland, a cheese retailer based in London, told UK newspaper The Independent : "The bigger question is, what is the ban for? "We completely understand restricting the movement of live cattle. LSD is an infectious disease from cattle to cattle. But if we're talking about from cattle to milk, there's no cattle-to-human transmission at all. Even if there was the tiniest risk, it's not being consumed by cattle anyway." A Defra spokesperson stood by the ban, saying: 'This government will do whatever it takes to protect British farmers and their herds from disease,' adding that most Italian cheeses, such as Parmesan, Mozzarella and Gorgonzola, should be unaffected as they are largely pasteurised. However the UK is not the only country to impose a ban - Canada has also banned imports of unpasturised cheese from France, Italy and Switzerland. Advertisement Is this why Eurostar is telling me I can't take a ham sandwich on my journey from Paris to London? No, that's a different issue, it's because of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in continental Europe. Germany detected an outbreak in January but has since been declared FMD-free, however subsequent outbreaks in Hungary and Slovakia have persisted. In response, the UK recently announced that it has banned imports of meat or dairy products from European countries where the virus has been detected, as well as Austria due to the outbreak in neighbouring Hungary. However travellers are being advised that meat and dairy products from all EU countries are banned, which is why you may have received an email from Eurostar or ferry companies if you have recently travelled from France to the UK. Foot and mouth disease does not affect humans but is highly contagious among cattle. A major outbreak in the UK in 2001 led to the culling of more than six million animals and cost the economy billions, devastating the livestock industry and tourism.

Smartphones lead to ‘suicidal thoughts' in children under 13, study
Smartphones lead to ‘suicidal thoughts' in children under 13, study

Euronews

time3 days ago

  • Euronews

Smartphones lead to ‘suicidal thoughts' in children under 13, study

Children shouldn't have access to smartphones until the age of 13, according to a new global study. Those who used smartphones before they turned 13 were more likely to have suicidal thoughts, bad emotional regulation, lower self-worth, aggression, and detachment from reality, according to the study published in the Journal of the Human Development and Capabilities. Girls were more impacted by smartphone use than boys, with 9.5 per cent of female respondents considered 'struggling' with their mental health compared to 7 per cent of males, irrespective of their country of origin, the research added. Kids under 13 were more likely to experience sleep disruptions, cyberbullying and negative family relationships, the study found. Restrict smartphones like alcohol, researchers say The study drew data from the self-reported mental health profiles of 100,000 young people between the ages of 18-24. The study was conducted by a team from the research non-profit Sapien Labs. The researchers generated an overall "mind health" score for each profile based on 47 social, emotional, cognitive, and physical functions. The mind health scores got worse the longer a child had access to a smartphone, the research continued. For example, the score of a child who received a phone at 13 dropped from 30 to just one for those who received a phone at five years old. The results were worse for the 18-20 year-olds than the 21-24 cohort in the responses, which could be due to prolonged screen exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study said. However, the results of smartphone use in under 13s are consistent despite the geographical and social differences that kids have. Lead author Tara Thiagarajan said she'd like to see smartphones restricted to those under 13 and regulated like alcohol and tobacco by government authorities. The move should be paired with restrictions on social media platforms as well as 'mandating digital literacy education and enforcing corporate accountability'. 'I was initially surprised by how strong the results are,' Thiagarajan said. 'However, when you give it due consideration, it does begin to make sense that the younger developing mind is more compromised by the online environment, given their vulnerability and lack of worldly experience'. What regulations are already in place against cellphones? Most of the bans so far against cellphones are happening in Europe's schools, with partial bans in French, Dutch, British, Italian, Hungarian, Spanish, Irish, Swedish, Belgian, Greek, Latvian, Luxembourgish and Finnish classrooms. Some of these countries, including France, the Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg and some Spanish regions, have complete school-wide bans on mobile phones so they cannot be used at any point during the day. Other European countries, such as Denmark, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Portugal, are also considering further restrictions on cellphones. For social media, France's artificial intelligence (AI) minister also proposed a European-wide ban on the use of social media for those under 15 years old. Several EU laws, such as the Digital Service Act, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, and the General Data Protection Regulation, include provisions to shield children from harmful content and protect their data. Last month, EU lawmakers voted to criminalise AI-generated child abuse images, online grooming, livestreaming, sextortion and the age of consent.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store