Construction workers are called upon to take multiple breaks and to remain cautious under the blazing sun while the heat continues to complicate their work as well as that of first responders.
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“We have the sun hitting us on the back and we have the heat of the ground reflected. The ambient heat of a roof is 50 to 90 degrees, and that’s not counting the burners when you weld. We have to deal with a fairly significant heat which is quite a part of our daily life, ”recounted worker Kevin Gordon, team leader of Montreal-North Coverage, on Saturday at the microphone of TVA Nouvelles.
To make up for the delay of the last few weeks due to the heat, due in particular to the numerous breaks by the workers, his team was busy, on Saturday, repairing the roof of a Laval secondary school.
To ensure the health and safety of these employees who are vulnerable to heat stroke, a mobile trailer has been installed on the premises in addition to a garden hose to invite workers to cool off, take breaks and drinking water.
“There are things to be aware of. If you often have headaches, and you have headaches when it’s hot, it may not be your daily headache, but rather heat stroke. […] You have to be careful, ”continued the team leader.
But construction workers are not the only ones to be directly affected by the heat: the sun complicates the work of first responders too.
Because although paramedics are used to working in heat waves every summer, prolonged interventions in small apartments that are poorly ventilated or without air conditioning remain a major challenge.
What’s more, calls tend to increase during heat waves, since a greater number of citizens are hit by heatstroke. Added to this is the already vulnerable population, in precarious health, which is directly affected.
All of this directly increases the workload of paramedics.
In Montreal, no less than twenty interventions have taken place for heatstroke alone, not counting medical cases whose condition would have been aggravated by the heat, reported Jean-Pierre Rouleau, spokesperson for Urgences -health.