Harsh sun bearing down: Outdoor laborers in China grappling with intense heatwave conditions
In the face of increasingly frequent heatwaves caused by climate change, China has taken significant steps to safeguard the health of its outdoor workers. These workers, numbering nearly 100 million by 2018, include construction workers, couriers, sanitation workers, bike-share dispatchers, and food delivery drivers.
The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has allocated approximately 40 million yuan (around $5.59 million) to local authorities to provide cooling-off places, cold drinks, and medicines to these workers during high temperatures. Local trade unions are also required to organize awareness lectures on heat risks and sunstroke prevention, provide round-the-clock psychological consulting, and ensure employers improve working conditions with scientific work scheduling, protective supplies, and heat subsidies.
According to Chinese labor laws and the Administrative Measures for Heatstroke Prevention and Cooling, workers exposed to daily maximum temperatures above 35°C or indoor environments hotter than 33°C are entitled to mandatory high-temperature allowances, which vary regionally but usually range from about 8 to 24 yuan per working day. During heatwaves, authorities advise suspending outdoor work where possible, enforcing effective sun protection, hydration, and cooling measures to prevent heatstroke among outdoor workers.
The Chinese government has also included heat exhaustion diagnosis under occupational disease insurance and requires workplaces to promptly adjust work duration and intensity during extreme heat events. By the end of 2024, 3,025 rest stations had been established in Beijing alone, providing water, charging points, and heatstroke-prevention medication for food delivery drivers.
However, awareness and understanding of heat-related health risks remain insufficient in wider society, creating additional risks. For instance, many food delivery drivers do not associate high temperatures with illnesses like heat stroke, heart attacks, and strokes. Delivery drivers are reluctant to use service stations or cool off in non-delivery locations due to feelings of conspicuousness and the need to set off for pickups as soon as they receive an order.
Moreover, people living in cooler regions often believe there is no need to worry about the threat of heatwaves, while those in hotter regions believe they are already accustomed to high temperatures and thus don't need to worry either. This misconception poses a significant challenge to effective heat risk management.
The International Labour Organization adopted guidelines in 2015 to help outdoor workers adapt to climate change. The International Organization for Standardization uses the Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature to identify high-temperature work environments and calculate rest and work cycles under different levels of physical exertion. The first meteorological orange alert for the risk of stroke from heat was released in June 2023, highlighting the growing importance of heat risk management.
The heatwave which struck Europe in the summer of 2022 caused over 60,000 excess deaths in the region, underscoring the global impact of heatwaves. The Lancet report mentioned that potential work hours lost due to heat stress in China increased by 24.1% in 2023, reaching 36.9 billion hours. With the growing threat of heatwaves, it is crucial that societies worldwide, including China, continue to implement and improve protective measures to ensure the health and safety of their outdoor workers.
References:
- China's labour unions to help workers beat the heat
- China issues heatstroke guidelines for outdoor workers
- China issues heatstroke alerts as temperatures soar
- Heatwaves and health: a review
- China's labour laws and regulations on heatstroke prevention and cooling
- In the wake of rising carbon emissions fueling climate change and its subsequent heatwaves, the global scientific community, including environmental science researchers, is advocating for more stringent workplace-wellness measures to mitigate health risks among outdoor workers.
- Addressing heat-related medical conditions and their impact on the overall health-and-wellness of outdoor workers, China released the Administrative Measures for Heatstroke Prevention and Cooling in 2015, which aims to ensure proper climate-change adaptation in the workplace.
- Along with the ongoing efforts to combat climate change and its effects, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations, China's initiatives for heat risk management serve as a model for other countries to emulate in achieving environmental health equity.
- Partnerships between organizations like the International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Standardization contribute to the advancement of science and technology in the realm of heat risk management, enabling the assessment of high-temperature work environments and the development of effective working conditions.
