Spatio-temporal patterns of the minimum rest time for outdoor workers exposed to summer heat stress in South Korea
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Spatio-temporal patterns of the minimum rest time for outdoor workers exposed to summer heat stress in South Korea Seung-Wook Lee 1,2
&
In-Gyum Kim 3 & Hye-Min Kim 3 & Dae-Geun Lee 3 & Hee-Choon Lee 3 & Gwangyong Choi 2
Received: 23 December 2019 / Revised: 25 May 2020 / Accepted: 12 June 2020 # ISB 2020
Abstract In this study, the spatio-temporal characteristics of the minimum rest time for the safety of South Korean outdoor workers during hot summer months (June to August) are examined based on the hourly wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) across 27 weather stations in South Korea. The WBGT thresholds in the work-rest recommendation of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA 2017) for the quantification of the minimum rest time are evaluated through a comparison of the given thresholds with the occurrences of occupational heat-related illness patients due to outdoor work during hot summer months in South Korea. The long-term (2009–2018) average of the hourly WBGT values during summer months shows that outdoor workers with a moderate workload are exposed to heat stress during approximately 30% of the entire daytime working hours (06:00–18:00). According to the WBGT thresholds modified from the KOSHA (2017) guidelines, the daily minimum rest time for a moderate workload noticeably increases up to 18% (11 min/h) in mid-summer (late July and early August). During midsummer, the minimum rest time for a continuous moderate outdoor workload even increases up to 31% (18 min/h) between 12:00 and 13:00 and is regionally higher in the southwestern than in the southeastern regions of the Korean Peninsula. These results suggest that in summertime high-heat environments, a mandatory rest time must be provided according to appropriate heat management programs for the safety of workers. Keywords Heat stress . WBGT . Outdoor workers . Occupational safety . Rest time
Introduction Mild sunny weather under a high-pressure system is a favorable condition for outdoor work, but when outdoor workers are exposed to such weather in summer without an appropriate rest time, productivity can decline due to excessive heat stress (Kjellstrom et al. 2009). As compared with indoor workers, Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-020-01956-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Gwangyong Choi [email protected] 1
Innovative Meteorological Research Department, National Institute of Meteorological Sciences, 33 Seohobuk-ro, Seogwipo-si, Jeju, Republic of Korea
2
Major of Geography Education, Jeju National University, 102, Jejudaehak-ro, Jeju-si, Jeju, Republic of Korea
3
Planning and Finance Division, National Institute of Meteorological Sciences, 33 Seohobuk-ro, Seogwipo-si, Jeju, Republic of Korea
the vulnerability of outdoor workers to heat stress can be more intensified by multiple climactic factors, such as high humidity, direct sunlight, and high temperatures (Kjellstrom et al. 2013). Outdoor wo
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