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Climate change raising heat risks for workers, experts warn

Rising global temperatures are increasing the risk of workers dying or becoming disabled from extreme heat, according to an international conference. Tens of thousands of workers worldwide have already died from heat-related illnesses.

The conference highlighted the need for countries to take action to protect workers’ health, including implementing regulations and providing rest, water, and shade. Climate change is intensifying the urgency of addressing this issue.

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DOHA, QATAR — Rising global temperatures are increasing the risk of workers dying or becoming disabled from labouring in extreme heat, an international conference has been told.

The conference, held in Qatar as spring temperatures raced towards 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), heard that tens of thousands of workers around the world have died from chronic kidney disease and other illnesses linked with extreme heat over recent decades.

“Science tells us that all countries can do more,” the International Labour Organisation’s regional chief for Arab countries, Ruba Jaradat, told the Occupational Heat Stress Conference, which focused on climate change and how rising temperatures threaten workers’ health.

Last year’s World Cup in Qatar drew attention to workers toiling in temperatures that can top 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) during the summer peak in countries across the Gulf.

Since 2021, Qatar has banned outdoor working between 10:00 am and 3.30 pm from 1 June to 15 September.

Its reforms have been praised by the UN labour agency, though some experts say more can be done.

There is no international standard for temperatures for outdoor work, but climate change has forced new scrutiny.

The US administration promised new rules in 2021 after a deadly heatwave and the White House said that “heat is the nation’s leading weather-related killer”. Nothing has been produced yet, however.

Europe has also seen devastating heat waves. But apart from Qatar, Cyprus is one of the rare countries to have restricted working hours, ordering extra breaks and heat-protective clothing when temperatures rise above 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).

Extreme heat and sun radiation unleash heatstroke, kidney, heart and lung diseases and raise cancer rates, according to researchers.

Justin Glaser, head of La Isla Network, an occupational health group, said more than 20,000 sugar workers in Central America had died in a single decade from chronic kidney disease. He pointed to about 25,000 deaths from kidney disease in Sri Lanka.

‘People are dying’

Around one billion farm workers and tens of millions in construction and other outdoor industries are on the frontline, the conference was told. But swimming pool lifeguards, gardeners and postal delivery workers also face heat dangers.

Construction workers can be exposed to enough ultraviolet rays over 30 to 40 years to more than double the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer.

Taiwanese researchers warned in a 2020 study that kidney disease from extreme heat “may represent one of the first epidemics due to global warming”.

According to ILO forecasts, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa will suffer the most from lost working hours due to extreme heat in the coming years.

India, Bangladesh and their neighbours have huge agricultural populations and large numbers working in informal sectors with no health insurance.

Vidhya Venugopal, an occupational health professor at the Sri Ramachandra Institute in Chennai, highlighted the case of hundreds of thousands of salt farmers in India working in desert-like conditions who suffer high rates of kidney and other diseases.

“They have no cover and they are stood in salt all day long,” Venugopal told AFP. In the summer months, about 80 per cent suffer some kind of heat illness.

But millions of workers in India’s industrial north are at risk, she said.

India and other poorer countries cannot wait for international standards to be enforced. “People are dying, people are getting the disease. We need to adapt all the practices used by others and tailor them to our own culture.”

Health experts say rest, water and shade are needed to ease the deadly risks.

“Owners say no, no, no, we don’t want our workers to rest because we will lose productivity. But that has to change,” Venugopal said.

Glaser of La Isla Network worked with sugar companies in Central America to improve conditions. Workers on a nine-hour shift cut 4.75 tonnes of sugar cane a day. With better breaks, shade and water, they cut 6.2 tonnes in four hours, he said.

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore hangs 14th drug convict since last year

Singapore executed Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted of drug trafficking, amid a resumption of executions in 2022. Another woman prisoner, Saridewi Djamani, faces execution.

Amnesty International urged Singapore to halt the executions, questioning the deterrent effect of the death penalty.

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26 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore on Wednesday hanged a local man convicted of drug trafficking, officials said, two days before the scheduled execution of the first woman prisoner in the city-state in nearly 20 years.

Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted and sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking “not less than 49.98 grams” (1.76 ounces) of heroin, was executed at Changi Prison, the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement.

The 57-year-old was the 14th convict sent to the gallows since the government resumed executions in March 2022 after a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hussain’s previous appeals against his conviction and sentence had been dismissed, and a petition for presidential clemency was also denied.

A woman drug convict, 45-year-old Saridewi Djamani, is scheduled to be hanged on Friday, according to the local rights group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).

She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, Djamani would be the first woman executed in Singapore since 2004, when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, according to TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws — trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or over 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the executions, saying there was no evidence the death penalty acted as a deterrent to crime.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

Singapore, however, insists that the death penalty has helped make it one of Asia’s safest countries.

Among those hanged since last year was Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, whose execution sparked a global outcry, including from the United Nations and British tycoon Richard Branson, because he was deemed to have a mental disability.

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore to execute first woman in nearly 20 years: rights groups

Singapore set to execute two drug convicts, including first woman in 20 years, despite rights groups’ calls to stop.

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1 year ago

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25 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore is set to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years, rights groups said Tuesday, while urging the executions be halted.

Local rights organisation Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) said a 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of heroin is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday at the Southeast Asian city-state’s Changi Prison.

A 45-year-old woman convict who TJC identified as Saridewi Djamani is also set to be sent to the gallows on Friday. She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, she would be the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004 when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, said TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

TJC said the two prisoners are Singaporeans and their families have received notices setting the dates of their executions.

Prison officials have not answered emailed questions from AFP seeking confirmation.

Singapore imposes the death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and some forms of kidnapping.

It also has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws: trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis and 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

At least 13 people have been hanged so far since the government resumed executions following a two-year hiatus in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the impending executions.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

“There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs.

“As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither,” Sangiorgio added.

Singapore insists that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent.

— AFP

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