MoPH Concludes Heat Stress Awareness Workshop for Workplace Safety

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has concluded a training workshop on heat stress during the summer season, attended by approximately 250 occupational health and safety officers from companies operating in the State of Qatar. The workshop forms part of the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to raise awareness of occupational health and safety in workplace environments.

This workshop complements the field awareness campaigns carried out by the Ministry of Public Health in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour. These campaigns include the production of educational materials in multiple languages to ensure they reach the widest possible segment of the workforce.

Through the organisation of workshops and awareness campaigns, the Ministry of Public Health seeks to implement the Workplace Wellness Support and Follow-up Project, one of the projects under the “Occupational Health and Safety” initiative within the National Health Strategy 2024–2030. The aim is to create workplaces free from occupational diseases and injuries.

The two-day workshop aimed to raise awareness among occupational health and safety officers in companies about the importance of taking necessary preventive measures to avoid heat stress injuries, and to enable them to pass this knowledge on to workers within their companies.

The workshop covered several important topics, including definitions and types of heat stress, methods of prevention, first aid to be administered at work sites, the impact of sunlight on the eyes, and laws related to working in open spaces during the summer.

In his opening remarks, Dr Salah Abdulla Alyafei, Director of the Health Promotion Department at the Ministry of Public Health, stated, “Heat stress remains one of the most significant risks to workers’ health and safety. Rising temperatures and humidity during the summer pose an increasing challenge. Given the diversity of the workforce, many workers may be unaware of the dangers or unfamiliar with proper protective measures.”

Dr Alyafei added, “Each year, the Ministry of Public Health, through its Occupational Health Section, runs a dedicated heat stress programme targeted at company health and safety managers and supervisors. This initiative is aimed at improving awareness of heat stress symptoms and preventive actions. As part of the programme, multilingual educational materials are distributed across workplaces, highlighting ways to prevent heat-related issues during the summer. We greatly value the strong collaboration between the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Labour in organising these joint awareness campaigns.”

It is worth noting that the enforcement of Ministerial Decision No 17 of 2021 on the necessary precautions to protect workers from heat stress has significantly contributed to reducing related injuries. The regulation prohibits outdoor work, or work in unshaded or unventilated areas, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM between 1 June and 15 September each year, in a bid to safeguard workers from the dangers of summer heat stress.

(MoPH)