Heat waves occurrence and outdoor workers' self-assessment of heat stress in Slovenia and Greece

Pogačar, Tjaša (author), Žnidaršič, Zala (author), Kajfež-Bogataj, Lučka (author), Flouris, Andreas D. (author), Poulianiti, Konstantina (author), Črepinšek, Zalika (author)

Changing patterns of heat waves are part of the global warming effect and the importance of changes is reinforced by their negative impact on society. Firstly, heat waves were analyzed in Brnik (Slovenia) and Larisa (Greece) in the period 1981–2017 to reflect the environment which workers are exposed to. Secondly, outdoor workers (70 from Greece, 216 from Slovenia) provided a self-assessment of heat stress. The heat wave timeline is presented as an effective way of illustrating long-term changes in heat waves’ characteristics for various stakeholders. In both countries, workers assessed as significant the heat stress impact on productivity (Greece 69%, Slovenia 71%; p > 0.05), and in Slovenia also on well-being (74%; p < 0.01). The main experienced symptoms and diseases were thirst (Greece 70%, Slovenia 82%; p = 0.03), excessive sweating (67%, 85%; p = 0.01), exhaustion (51%, 62%; p > 0.05) and headache (44%, 53%; p > 0.05). The most common way to reduce heat stress was drinking more water (Greece 64%, Slovenia 82%; p = 0.001). Among the informed workers, the prevalent source of information was discussions. Therefore, educational campaigns are recommended, together with the testing of the efficiency of mitigation measures that will be proposed on the Heat-Shield project portal.

• Language: English
• Keywords: heat wave, outdoor workers, occupational health, heat stress, climate change, productivity
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty; FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2019
• Number of pages: 12 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 16, iss. 4, art. 597
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-131921
• UDC: 551.58
• ISSN on article: 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16040597
• COBISS.SI-ID: 9167737
• Publication date in RUL: 06.10.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of environmental research and public health
• Shortened title: Int. j. environ. res. public health
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 1660-4601
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1818965

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 19.02.2019

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: delavci, klimatske spremembe, vročinski stres, Slovenija, Grčija, vročinski valovi, zdravje

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Funding programme: H2020
• Project number: 668786
• Name: Integrated inter-sector framework to increase the thermal resilience of European workers in the context of global warming
• Acronym: HEAT-SHIELD