Biology Safety - Temperature in the workplace

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	Temperature in the workplace
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Temperature in the workplace

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The Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers publish guidance on workplace temperature but their design criteria are intended to cover 80 percent of the year - which means by default that one day in five is going to be outside the criteria.

The following text is taken from an HSE (Health and Safety Executive) Press Release (E139:99) issued on 30th July 1999;

HOT AND BOTHERED? ... KEEP YOUR COOL!

Rising temperatures make people at work feel uncomfortable, so it makes sense for employers to ensure workers are cool and comfortable during hot weather, says the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

New simple guidance from HSE, published today, offers employers practical advice on how to ensure reasonably comfortable working temperatures (thermal comfort) for their employees during both hot and cold weather.

The new publication supplements the current Approved Code of Practice and guidance which accompanies the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. It contains sections explaining:
- what is meant by thermal comfort;
- what employers can do to ensure it;
- what the law requires; and
- where to get further information, guides and standards on thermal comfort.

The guidance also includes some simple practical steps that employers can take to ensure reasonable comfort during either hot or cold weather.

During hot weather, these can be as simple as:
- providing air cooling or air conditioning plant;
- providing fans;
- ensuring that windows can be opened;
- shading windows with blinds;
- siting workstations away from direct sunlight;
- providing additional facilities, e.g. cold water dispensers;
- allowing sufficient breaks to enable employees to get cold drinks or to cool down;
- introducing working practices such as flexible hours or earlier starts to the working day to avoid the worst effects of working in exceptionally high temperatures; and
- relaxing formal dress codes (but personal protective equipment must be used, if required).

In cold weather, the guidance reminds employers to provide adequate heating; to reduce exposure by separating cold areas from those where people work; and to introduce appropriate working practices and systems. All common sense, one might think, but these measures can make all the difference between a comfortable working environment and one which is uncomfortable, stressful and possibly harmful.

The new guidance does not suggest a maximum workplace temperature but reminds employers of their responsibility for assessing risks to their employees' health, safety and welfare, including the effects of heat, high temperatures and hot weather.

HSE inspectors and local authority enforcement officers will look to employers to be proactive in complying with the law relating to temperature in the workplace and to take prompt action to ensure reasonable comfort in indoor workplaces.

Copies of 'Thermal comfort in the workplace - guidance for employers' (ref. HSG194) are available from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 6FS or through good booksellers. ISBN 0 7176 2468 4, price £3.50.

Notes to Editors

1. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 sets out employers' general duties of care towards their employees and members of the public and employees' duties to themselves and others. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 require employers to carry out risk assessments, which should identify hazards relating to work activities, including temperature.

2. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 cover a wide range of basic health, safety and welfare issues such as heating, lighting, workstations, seating and welfare facilities. The Regulations also cover temperature and related thermal comfort issues, such as ventilation. For further details see Workplace, health, safety and welfare: Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 Approved Code of Practice and Guidance on Regulations [Ref. L24]. ISBN 0 7176 0413 6, price £5.00.

3. The Workplace Regulations do not specify a minimum or maximum indoor workplace temperature. The Approved Code of Practice does, however, recommend, the following:
- minimum temperatures for workrooms of at least 16^oC, or 13^oC if much of the work involves severe physical effort. These minimum temperatures do not apply to rooms or parts of rooms where it would be impractical to maintain these temperatures, e.g. in rooms which have to be kept open to the outside or where food or other products have to be kept cold;
- where a reasonably comfortable temperature cannot be achieved throughout a workroom, local heating or cooling should be provided;
- if, despite local heating or cooling, employees are still exposed to uncomfortable temperatures, employers should take further action to resolve the problem.

4. No maximum temperature is set in regulation because:
- this would be prescriptive and would limit the discretion of both duty holders and enforcers. Most modern health and safety law is goal-setting - setting out what must be achieved, not how it must be done. This approach enables HSE and Local Authority inspectors to use discretion and to make sensible judgements about the extent of risks and the efforts made to counter them;
- many workplaces have extreme temperatures because of the nature of the industry and the processes involved e.g. cast metal, catering and food processing; or because of the nature of the work activity, e.g. physically demanding work; and
- being reasonably comfortable in an indoor workplace is not a question of air temperature alone. Other issues to be considered include environmental factors and those which affect individuals, such as their age, sex and state of health. Sometimes the best that employers may be able to achieve is a thermal environment which will satisfy the majority of those working in that environment.

5. HSE has recently started work on a review of the Approved Code of Practice and guidance to the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations, as part of the Health and Safety Commission's (HSC's) continuing aim to simplify and clarify the regulatory framework to make it more effective. The review is still at an early planning stage within HSE. HSC has assured the TUC and other organisations that the issue of thermal comfort will be one of the many issues included in what will be a wide-ranging consultation exercise.

PUBLIC ENQUIRIES: HSE Information Centre, Broad Lane, Sheffield S3 7HQ.

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