From tourist guides to farmers, millions of employees have to work outdoors, even in a heatwave. What's happening inside our bodies, and what health dangers do we face?
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Hello, and welcome to Climate Now.
00:07 And this month, we're here in Greece
00:09 with scientists researching the growing problem of heat stress
00:12 in the workplace.
00:13 Many of us have to work outdoors, even in a heat wave.
00:17 So what's going on inside our bodies
00:20 when the temperature rises?
00:22 It's not our kidneys.
00:23 It's not our lungs.
00:23 It's not our heart.
00:24 All of these are also affected.
00:26 But the central nervous system is
00:27 the one that first breaks down.
00:30 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:33 Well, that's our report coming up.
00:35 But first, the latest data from the Copernicus Climate Change
00:38 Service.
00:40 March 2024 was the warmest March on record on a global level,
00:44 with temperatures 0.7 degrees Celsius above the 1991 to 2020
00:49 average.
00:52 Germany and the Netherlands had their warmest March
00:54 since records began.
00:55 And it was much warmer than average over the eastern United
00:58 States and Canada.
00:59 Meanwhile, parts of California were unusually cold and snowy.
01:02 To put the data into a historical context,
01:07 we have this graph of air temperature anomalies
01:09 since the 1940s.
01:12 It shows how the first three months of 2024
01:15 were over 1.5 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial
01:18 average.
01:20 Last month was wetter than average
01:21 in much of Western Europe, especially France, Spain,
01:24 and Portugal.
01:26 The heavy rain is reflected in this map of precipitation
01:29 anomalies in blue.
01:31 We can also see that the coast of Norway
01:33 and parts of Eastern Europe were drier last month.
01:35 Now to our report on the risks of extreme heat
01:43 in the workplace.
01:46 The World Heritage Site of Meteora in central Greece
01:49 is one of the country's top attractions.
01:51 For the visitors, it's a day trip destination.
01:53 But for tourist guide, Nikki Milou, it's her workplace.
01:56 And the heat can be hard to bear.
01:58 Climate change means heat waves in Europe
02:07 are becoming more frequent and intense.
02:09 And heat stress is a persistent problem
02:11 for Nikki and her clients.
02:13 [SPEAKING GREEK]
02:15 Like Nikki, a rising number of Europeans
02:28 are now subject to what's known as heat stress at work.
02:31 Here at the University of Thessaly,
02:33 researchers are studying exactly how workers' bodies respond
02:36 to the heat.
02:38 Professor Andreas Flouris leads the research.
02:40 And today, he's studying farmer Athanasios Peristeris,
02:43 fitting him with sensors to measure his energy
02:46 use and the temperature outside and inside his body.
02:51 So on one hand, we need to know how his outer--
02:53 I would call it the shell--
02:55 outer body feels, but also the core body, which
02:58 is really important for brain temperature.
03:02 The next step is to perform heavy manual labor
03:04 in this chamber, which is warmed to heat wave conditions.
03:07 As Athanasios works, 85% of his energy
03:11 turns to heat, warming up his body, including his brain.
03:16 While he's doing this kind of work,
03:18 his core temperature is rising.
03:19 And if it rises beyond 39, 39.5 degrees Celsius,
03:23 his brain temperature will start affecting
03:26 how his nervous system works.
03:28 At some point, your brain will collapse.
03:30 And this will result in a condition
03:33 that can even lead to death, which is what we call heat
03:36 stroke.
03:38 Back on his farm, Athanasios is hard at work.
03:40 He admits he suffers on the hottest days.
03:43 [SPEAKING GREEK]
03:45 Such symptoms are the first sign of trouble.
03:59 When the brain and body is too warm,
04:01 workers should stop, rest, drink water, and seek shade.
04:04 Doing so will preserve their health
04:06 and preserve their productivity, too.
04:10 One very important issue to understand
04:12 is that heat is a lose-lose situation.
04:15 Both the workers are losing their health,
04:17 but also the employers are losing a lot of bottom line,
04:20 a lot of financial benefits because
04:23 of the losses in productivity.
04:24 We've seen that with simple and practical solutions,
04:27 you don't lose any productivity.
04:29 In fact, you gain productivity instead of losing it.
04:34 Well, that's all we have time for.
04:35 But you can read a lot more about heat, health,
04:38 and climate change on euronews.com/climate now.
04:42 And I'll see you next time.
04:44 (upbeat music)
04:46 (thud)