Global warming does not stop, quite the opposite. The climate emergency is becoming more and more evident. The temperatures in Spain and in the world do not stop growing. The high temperatures that have occurred this year in Spain since May are a palpable example of how environmental conditions are changing in relation to the past. It is to be assumed that this summer we will suffer new heat waves that will cause new havoc.
It must be taken into account that, in the eight days of heat wave that go from July 10 to 17, a total of 675 deaths from heat occurred in Spain, according to the calculations of the Daily Mortality Monitoring System of the Carlos III Health Institute. The vast majority of people who died they were of advanced ages, although not all of them. Without a doubt, the phenomenon we are experiencing is not an inconsequential anecdote. Therefore, measures will have to be taken in all areas of our lives, including in the world of work, in order to guarantee the health of citizens.
In recent days, three workers have lost their lives due to suffocating temperatures. Yesterday, Thursday, a 56-year-old man died while distributing propaganda in the town of Paracuellos del Jarama. In the early hours of Saturday, another man of the same age died after suffering a heat stroke while he was on a ship from Móstoles. His co-workers estimated the temperature inside the ship to be about 46 degrees. The other deceased person, aged 60, was a municipal cleaning worker in Madrid. he was transferred in serious condition to Hospital Gregorio Marañón after suffering heat stroke while working in the Puente de Vallecas district.
As noted above, the new climatic situation, which has a particularly worrying impact on the summer season, It pushes us to reflect as a society on the modifications that we must introduce in our daily activities, be they leisure or work. Companies, public or private, bear a special responsibility in this area, since they have the legal obligation to ensure the safety and health of its employees. Extreme temperatures represent, in addition to an obvious occupational hazard, a brake on productivity. Exposure to these temperatures decreases endurance, vision, coordination of movements, and mental focus.
The companies they should do a chip change and realize that it is no longer useful to take the usual measures, such as recommending that workers not stop drinking water. As the Secretary of Labor of the Government of the Generalitat, Enric Vinaixa, has stated, as a result of the recent deaths of workers and other incidents linked to strong heat, We are facing a danger that is going to increase and that must be taken seriously. A change in the mentality of society, also of the public administration and of companies, is unavoidable, a change that passes, in the first place, through be really aware of what is happening, to then adapt as much as possible to a trend, higher and higher temperatures, which for the moment does not seem to be abating. n