Campaign for maximum workplace temperature launched

I guess you've hit the nail on the head Richard as to why no max upper limit already exists. Potentially you may have to have several policies within the same company never mind just the same industry.

Very careful consideration needs to be made. In a non air conditioned building how do you regulate the ambient temperature when its 26 degrees outside - as it was yesterday?

I would imagine that there would have to be a number of ranges to cover all areas of employment tasks especially in heavy industry where quite often heat is the main component of the process.

Hello

You will hugely increase the energy requirement in an air conditioned building and non air conditioned buildings will have to be.

Barry L

The difficulty with an absence of a maximum working temperature is the level of consistency attributed to the implementation of control measures, even within the same company.

There is an element of personal tolerance and in UK sudden change in temperature. For FM World (15 sept) subscriber please read article by Hywel Davis from CIBSE. The website is www.cibse.org/index.cfm?go=pulication.view@item=400
This will answer all your questions without involvong the parliamenterians.

A study undertaken in the US several years ago discovered that when workplace temperatures rose above 24 Celsius the frequency of accidents (minor or otherwise) rose significantly.
If translated into low risk occupations you can see where this could manifest as lower productivity, diminishing standards of QA/QC and an effect on decision making and interpersonal skills.
It isn't just a better H & S outcome that addressing workplace comfort could have a beneficial effect on.

We currently get office staff concerned if temperatures are consistently above 26-27 degrees.
Bringing in a legal maximum would simply mean that employers could stop trying to address concerns and manage thge issue until temperatures reached the maximum level.
Not particularly helpful unless legislation is very crefully worded.

Of course, there should be sound reasoning behind any suggested limits, be they, directly occupational health driven or health and safety in terms of performance driven where the hazards are 'time related' between breaks from any operational scenario in which errors and/or levels of fatigue exacerbate risk.

For those DSE users who by and large remain immobile on screen during tasks it would be at variance from someone working outside or within a confined space nevertheless, in either situation fresh air flow and ambient temperature will be critical to performance and productivity as well as health risks.

Humidity and temperature raising the whole question of potential comfort and/or dehydration in a range of scenarios or workplace arenas in addition to lighting to workplace etc. etc. etc. and that doesn't mean that it should be urgently addressed.

There needs to be careful and widely accepted reasoning behind the value chosen.

Agreed, something needs putting in place as I could never understand why there never was a max.