두바이 엑스포 2020 건설노동자들, 위험한 작업조건에 노출 VIDEO:Workers at Dubai's Expo 2020 likely to have suffered dangerous heat stress

Workers at Dubai's Expo 2020 likely to have suffered dangerous heat stress

Exclusive: ‘World’s greatest show’ could be linked to cardiorespiratory failures in labourers building infrastructure

Thu 3 Oct 2019 11.31 BSTLast modified on Thu 3 Oct 2019 13.16 BST


Thousands of migrant construction workers employed on huge infrastructure and building projects ahead of next year’s Expo 2020 exhibition in Dubai are likely to have been exposed to dangerous levels of heat stress, a Guardian investigation has found.


Ongoing construction at the Expo 2020 site in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photograph: Expo 2020/Reuters




 

두바이 엑스포 2020 건설노동자들, 위험한 작업조건에 노출 


    내년 두바이에서 열릴 엑스포 2020 전시회를 앞두고 대규모 인프라와 건설 프로젝트에 고용된 수천 명의 이주 건설 노동자들이 위험한 수준의 고온 작업조건에 노출되었을 가능성이 높은 것으로 가디언 조사 결과 밝혀졌다.


두바이는 내년에 190개국이 모여 이동성, 혁신성, 지속가능성을 주제로 한 박람회를 개최할 예정이다.


그러나 가디언 조사 결과, 여름 동안 인프라, 숙박 시설, 국가 관을 건설해 온 이주 노동자들이 안전하지 않고 잠재적으로 치명적인 조건에서 일하고 있었을 수 있다는 것이 밝혀졌다.


엑스포 2020을 위한 건설은 2015년에 시작되었고, 맥라렌과 라잉 오로르케를 포함한 영국 건설회사들은 세계 박람회를 위한 수백만 파운드 규모의 건설 프로젝트에 참여하고 있는 수십 개의 외국 기업들 중 하나이다. 현재까지 엑스포 작업의 60%는 이미 완료됐다.




아랍에미리트는 인도, 네팔, 파키스탄, 방글라데시의 자택에서 세계 최고 부국 중 한 나라의 더위와 먼지 속에서 일하는 수십만 명의 이주 노동자들에게 위험한 곳이다.


매년 인도, 네팔, 파키스탄, 방글라데시를 여행한 수백 명의 노동자들이 걸프 주에서 일하다가 사망한다.

근로자들의 사망자 수는, 인도 정부의 자료에 따르면, 2012~2017년 사이에 5,185명의 인도인들이 사망했다고 한다. 이들 사망자의 상당수는 호흡부전, 심장마비 또는 "자연사"와 같은 심혈관 사건으로 기록된다. 인도 정부가 지난해 UAE에서 사망한 126명의 '블루 칼라' 근로자 중 70%가 심장마비로 사망한 것으로 기록됐다.


열은 심혈관 시스템에 큰 부담을 주고, 극도의 열 스트레스는 잠재적으로 치명적인 심장마비와 다른 심혈관 기능 상실로 이어진다.


theguardian.com


심장병 전문의와 기후학자의 최근 연구는 극심한 열 스트레스에 노출되는 것은 UAE와 기후 조건이 비슷한 카타르에서 네팔 이주 노동자들이 수백 명의 목숨을 잃는 것과 관련이 있다고 결론지었다.


황기철 콘페이퍼 에디터 큐레이터

Ki Chul Hwang, conpaper editor, curator


edited by kcontents




Dubai will host the Expo 2020 next year, in which 190 countries will come together to celebrate themes of mobility, innovation and sustainability in a series of bespoke, themed pavilions across a 4.38 sq km site in Dubai South economic zone.


Yet a Guardian investigation has found that migrant workers who have been building the infrastructure, accommodation blocks and national pavilions across the summer months could have been working in unsafe and potentially fatal conditions.


Construction work for the Expo 2020 began in 2015 and British construction firms including McLaren and Laing O’Rourke are among dozens of foreign companies involved in multi-million-pound construction projects for the global exhibition. To date, 60% of the Expo work has already been completed.


The United Arab Emirates is a dangerous place for the hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers who travel from their homes in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh to work in the heat and dust of one of the wealthiest countries in the world.


Every year hundreds of workers – mostly young men – who have travelled from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, die while working in the Gulf state.


Worker fatality numbers are difficult to access, but according to data from the Indian government, 5,185 Indian nationals died between 2012–2017. Many of these deaths are recorded as cardiovascular events such as respiratory failure, cardiac arrest or “natural deaths”. Of the 126 “blue collar” workers the Indian government said died in the UAE last year, 70% were recorded as dying from heart attacks.


ft.com

edited by kcontents




Heat places a huge strain on the cardiovascular system with extreme heat stress leading to potentially fatal heart attacks and other cardiovascular failures.


Recent research by cardiologists and climatologists concluded that exposure to extreme heat stress was linked to the deaths of hundreds of Nepali migrant workers in Qatar, which has similar weather conditions to the UAE.


The authorities in the UAE, in line with other countries across the Gulf, has said they are protecting workers from heat-related injuries through a work ban that prohibits manual labour in unshaded outdoor areas between 12.30–3pm from June–August.


However the Guardian’s weather analysis found that the summer work ban in the UAE does not keep workers safe. Anyone working outside who is performing even moderate physical labour is exposed to potentially fatal levels of heat stress for the majority of the working day from June–September every year.


British companies McLaren and Laing O’Rourke are currently working on Expo 2020 projects.


The UK’s Department for International Trade awarded the £21m contract to build the UK Expo 2020 pavilion, which is inspired by Stephen Hawking’s “breakthrough message” initiative, to Pico and McLaren. McLaren is also working on construction at Dubai airport.




Laing O’Rourke is working on a contract to build the Leadership and Media pavilions, as well as the “Hammerhead” access road to the central event space for Expo 2020 Dubai.


The companies said that they have robust heat strategies in place that go above and beyond the 12–3pm summer work ban imposed by the UAE government.


dubaiexpo2020.co

edited by kcontents




McLaren said that construction work on the UK pavilion is being timed to coincide with cooler temperatures. It also has detailed heat mitigation measures in place including chilled welfare areas, shaded rest areas on site and amended work schedules based on expected heat levels.


Laing O’Rourke said that it had specific summer working policies in place and well-defined procedures on how to implement these measures.


UK non-profit organisation the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) said that a survey it conducted of construction companies operating in the UAE last year found that many did not have robust heat monitoring programmes in place.


“Although British companies are doing comparatively well at taking the issue of heat stress seriously compared to many of their peers, all international construction companies in the UAE operate with an unacceptable level of risk to their workers,” said Diana Eltahawy, Gulf programme manager at BHRRC.




View full text

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/oct/03/workers-at-dubai-expo-2020-heat-stress


 kcontents

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