From the BARCELONA INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH (ISGLOBAL) and the “only from the minds of bureaucracy” department comes this absurd claim:
Moderate and extreme temperatures could increase the risk of occupational injuries
Moderate and extreme ambient temperatures increase the risk of occupational accidents. This is the main conclusion of a new study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the “la Caixa” Banking Foundation. The study analysed data on nearly 16 million occupational injuries that occurred in Spain over a 20-year period.
Heat and cold are believed to be associated with a higher risk of occupational injury, but the existing scientific evidence consists of only a handful of studies with a small number of cases and a limited geographic scope, and the economic impact has never been analysed in detail.
The new study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, is the first to analyse data from an entire country and evaluate the economic impact. Researchers analysed data related to nearly 16 million occupational injuries in Spain between 1994 and 2013 that resulted in at least one day of sick leave. This information was analysed in relation to the daily temperatures in the province where each injury occurred.
“Exposure to moderate to extreme temperatures may have played a role in over half a million of the workplace injuries that occurred during the study period,” commented ISGlobal researcher Èrica Martínez, lead author of the study. The analysis found that, on average, some 60 temperature-related injuries leading to at least one lost workday occurred each day, accounting for 2.7% of all work-related injuries in Spain. Extremes of cold and heat increased the risk of injury by 4% and 9%, respectively.
The biological mechanisms that link exposure to extreme ambient temperatures with the risk of occupational injury “are not yet fully understood”, explained Martínez. The most common types of injuries analysed in the study were bone fractures and superficial injuries. “This suggests that the underlying mechanism could be related to impaired concentration or judgement, which would affect occupational safety,” noted the researcher. Moreover, temperature-related effects were not limited to the day of exposure; a “pattern of delayed impact”, possibly caused by cumulative fatigue and dehydration, was observed in the days following exposure.
The study also concluded that women appear to be more vulnerable to cold and men more vulnerable to heat. This difference could be explained by the fact that women have lower sweat rates than men in hot climates. The youngest workers were the most vulnerable to heat, possibly because they tend to do more physically demanding work.
As for the economic impact of nonoptimal temperatures, the study found that temperature-related loss of working days had an annual cost of more than €360 million, representing 0.03% of Spain’s gross domestic product in 2015. Moderately high temperatures contributed the most to the economic losses.
“In the present context of climate change, these results indicate that public health interventions are needed to protect workers,” concluded ISGlobal researcher Xavier Basagaña, the study coordinator. “Most workplace injuries can be attributed to moderate heat and moderate cold. This shows us how important it is for public health policies and plans to take moderate temperature ranges into account, since they are more common than extreme temperatures and account for a larger share of total injuries.”
Preventive measures that could be incorporated into public health policies include restricting work during the coldest and hottest hours, taking rest breaks, ensuring proper hydration and wearing appropriate work clothes.
###
“Moderate and extreme ambient temperatures increase the risk of occupational accidents.” What is left when you take out moderate and extreme temperatures? Is there a non-moderate, non-extreme temperature? The stupid, it hurts.
Lying on the couch in front of the tv with the air on was the study’s baseline optimal.
LOL!
Yes so stupid, I think that only in Climate Science could you publish that junk.
I really loved the quote
One wonders if the genius ever considered that correlation does not imply causation, I keep forgetting this is Climate Science just assume everything is caused by it.
Well…When you come in from the Winter Cold (if you weren’t wearing gloves) your hands do tend to be a little Numb. So handling sharp objects or hot trays could cause an injury.
On the other hand, I was under the impression that Globull Warming was supposed to make Winters more mild and Night time temps a little warmer while not having a major effect on Daytime highs.
Seems to me that this would act to make the overall temperatures more mild and less extreme.
Generally there are more people outside in warmer weather. The incidents of injuries outside to inside is rather telling but do they account for it 🙂
How do they actually assign cause? Dehydration due to inadequate toilet breaks resulting in not drinking enough fluids is the only “job related” heat injury I can think of.
In high heat, you do have not only injuries directly due to heat, such as dehydration and heat stroke, but you also have more minor problems, such as sweat getting in your eyes, sweaty hands, or dizziness due to overheating. These can cause you to slip and fall, especially on staircases.
Extreme cold has the problems of ice, lower visibility due to snow or glasses-fog, and lack of attention due to the cold. Stairs are again a problem due to slipperiness and people keeping their hands close to shiver rather than holding onto the handrails.
In all seriousness, 9% and 4% seems like a low increase to me. Extreme weather is well documented to be a safety hazard.
Getting hit by cars, shot by guns and crime rises with increased temperatures. Most of the reason is more people are outside when the temperature is warmer. Get them all to stay inside under aircons and in cotton wool if you want to do something about it.
Talk about reports on the stupid, OHS and Climate Science it’s a toss up which is more stupid.
Considering Occupational Heath and Safety has actual people getting actually hurt, I’d say one of these is more legitimate.
Seriously, a lot of people have actual work to do outside much of the year.
Look at my moniker. We know about the dangers of high heat. You can’t put off work for six months (or even 6 hours) until the thermometer decides to drop below 90F. If we don’t work, stuff doesn’t get done. You have to be aware of the problems, not just flippantly ignore them..
I have had to move heavy work in Africa to a 9 PM to 9 AM window. In and around Lake Maracaibo we turn on those large fans used for sour work, and kept ice chips, Gatorade and lemonade with sugar and salt, all in coolers available for everybody
It’s a simple statistical link. I’ve had access to similar studies for the oil industry workforce, and it’s evident that safety problems are more likely to arise as temperature reach extremes unless workers are really hydrated and provided with a lighter work load. This applies to cold as well as hot extremes.
I live in Spain, and in some provinces the summer heat plus humidity are awful. However, the warming trend here seems to be towards milder winters as well as slightly higher night temperatures. Therefore the global warming impact isn’t that simple to quantify. I suppose that in 50 years the average max summer temperature could be 0.5 degree higher, or something like that. On the other hand there will be less slipping on ice in winter. I don’t think it’s a big deal.
By the way, the most dangerous period for a drilling rig workforce is from around half past midnight until 6 AM. That night shift has to be watched closely, fed coffee and if necessary forced to answer stupid questions.
Fernando – I agree.
And I imagine [not knowing the drill-rig workforce you reference] that most of those will be regular night-shift workers.
It boggles the mind that some professions [OK, in the UK . . .] have rotating shifts in safety-critical roles, including train and tram drivers, police patrol officers, and hospital medical doctors.
All these [and perhaps other] professions have something like three days, three lates, three earlies, and two-to-five rest days; an example only, as shift do vary considerably.
One example is mentioned in the (multi-fatality) Croydon Tram Crash report.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/report-182017-overturning-of-a-tram-at-sandilands-junction-croydon
Mind the money quote there is –
“Although it is possible that the driver was fatigued due to insufficient sleep there is no evidence that this was the result of the shift pattern that he was required to work.”
Opinion, in my opinion [!].
At sea, on better-manned ships, watch officers usually get assigned to a watch for their entire contract [which may be three to six months] – but will certainly have to work outwith those hours, too.
At least their fixed hours are fixed.
Auto
Even if you’re getting “sufficient” sleep, a disrupted circadian rhythm from a constantly changing schedule will reduce its effectiveness. You’re body and brain need time to adjust and come to an agreement on what time to take siesta. Otherwise, you have days where you’re mind is alert but your body still feels exhausted, and days where your body is rested but your mind is still lethargic.
Shifts are usually permanent. I always preferred to work night shift because it was cooler, but my job didn’t have fixed hours. Working nights allowed me to prepare a better morning report and the work procedures for the next 24 hours. Many felt I was sacrificing myself, but it was simple convenience. And I grabbed coffee and walked around a lot between midnight and 3 AM to make sure everybody was on their toes.
“Extremes of cold and heat increased the risk of injury by 4% and 9%, respectively.”
Funny how, even though they recognize that cold causes relatively more injuries than does heat, they ignore the fact that if the world does warm up, there will be less cold and thus fewer cold related injuries.
Given the fact that there are twice as many cold related injuries as heat related ones, a warmer would would, by their research, result in fewer temperature related injuries.
You have it backwards. 9% is the heat figure, 4% is the cold figure. So a warming world will result in more temperature related injuries.
More workers call in sick to go fishing than to shovel their driveways.
Yes, but heat-related injuries are especially heinous. Because.
Because BBQ grills are hot.
I could never figure out the reason for the amazing coincidence that every year the number of sick days spiked the first day of hunting season.
Now I know; those fall days had moderate temperatures. /sarc
I struggle to believe the confusion between positive correlation and causal relationship that increasingly emanates from people who should understand it
Risk is the intersection of likelihood and impact. The article speaks to likelihood, but not impact.
“you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means”
Inigo Montoya
Sounds like if it’s warmer than average or colder than average you should’t go to work. And, in the US you should only work in those areas that have average temperature and not where the temps are “extreme.”
It’s too bad John Brignell’s warmlist isn’t being updated, we keep getting such stuff as this regularly. http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
That is easily the stupidest thing I’ve heard today.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time poring over accident reports. I have never seen one attribute the accident to moderate heat or cold.
Bob,
Agree, absolutely.
Auto
Noting that, occasionally, moderate supervision, or moderate risk assessment, do, indeed, get fingered as contributory causes.
Goldilocks’ broken chair accident was attributed to moderate just-rightness.
911 Call: “Help!!! I’ve fallen…. because Climate Change… and I can’t get up!”
Do they ask whether alcohol is consumed during the siesta-break?
“Moderate and extreme ambient temperatures”
” not limited to the day of exposure; ”
so……they had to stretch out the temp change to include moderate
…and stretch out the time over several days
To find out that Spaniards are wossies
lol!
The younger generation is definitely spoiled. They even have a law which forces parents to allow their offspring to live in until age 30 (which explains high unemployment rates for youngsters). I’m not sure about the details, but I heard of a neighbor whose daughter was living in, was a cocaine addict, refused to work, and sued the mother when she got kicked out. These laws were put in place by theSocialist party, which just took over the government again after being out for about six years. The socialists formed an alliance of sorts with the help of communists and supremacist separatists, if they stay in power Spain is going to disappear. The good side is that crime is still very low and the food is great.
It’s welfare on the cheap.
They force someone else to pay for it.
Next thing they will assign every household your own personal homeless person that you cannot kick out.
Would that be because all the criminals got into politics and now do their stealing legally? 🙂
There aren’t that many politicians stealing legally in Spain. It used to be bad, but the justice system has gone after the problem, and I believe it’s much better. However, the party that was taking 3% out f all construction contracts in Cataluña has just got regional presidency because The separatists are going haywire, and having a socialist president in Madrid doesn’t help things at all. Lucky for Spain he’s so weak he’s going to have to govern with the government plan and budget written by the center right opposition. So the economy should be ok, the socialists will focus on their identity politics and open border policies, but won’t be able to do real harm.
“Moderate and extreme temperatures could increase the risk of occupational injuries”
Indeed. Extreme temperatures increases both the risk for heat stroke and frostbite. Not simultaneously though.
“Most workplace injuries can be attributed to moderate heat and moderate cold. ” ?????
I’ve worked in construction for 20 years and received many injuries. Not once do I remember anyone being injured by temperature…..Errantly dropped Spuds..yes !
N.U.T.S. !!
Finally we know why Don Quixote fell off his mount & Sancho Panza never fell off his. Sancho’s paunch insulated him from variable temperatures; while the gaunt buffer-less Don was a victim of circumstances.
“Most workplace injuries can be attributed to moderate heat and moderate cold. ……….. since they are more common than extreme temperatures and account for a larger share of total injuries.”
It’s because more people do physical work when the temp is moderate…..morons
What is “extreme” heat in Spain anyway?……a whole lot cooler than a lot of places where people are out busting theirasses everyday working in it
I would say that 35 degrees C (95 F) with 60% relative humidity is extreme. This can be really hard on those doing physical labor, especially if the have to wear pants, long sleeves, heavy boots, helmet, safety glasses, gloves, and carry equipment. At that point in time it’s important to make sure they don’t overheat and croak.
Oklahoma in the US has similar summer temps and relative humidity regularly reaches 90% or more. At least we’ve had cloud cover and decent breezes this year so far. In conditions like these, long pants and shirts are actually a better choice, provided they’re made of the right fabrics. Since sweat does not evaporate readily in such high humidity, you want to minimize direct sun exposure and maximize wicking
What we need is a solar powered fan blowing air inside the hard hat, and a large pocket where we can fit a soft thermos with cold lemonade we can suck up with a small tube, like they did in Arrakis
There’s gold in them thar on-the-job injury claims!
Time to merge OSHA and EPA ? How will our government organize around such a threat? I think I may have worked in a environment that also had carbon compounds. Let’s toss in the NLRB to the bucket too.
“. . .carbon compounds. . .” The medical term is two-carbon flu.
Neil,
I hear, also, much about the six-pack flu.
Auto
More of the same from the warmists… “We’re going to propose something totally outrageous and you have to accept it as true until you prove it false to our satisfaction.”
“…but if you even look like you’re about to question it, you’ll be dismissed as a denier.”
Even scarier: The leaders of the world’s top economies, accompanied by platoons of the world’s top minds and policymakers, bespectacled flunkies each with half a dozen PhDs, all sat solemnly at the G7 shin-digs, nodding sagely to lectures on climate change vis-a-vis gender equity and such. Furrowed brows, not a single soul cracking a smile. Things are getting so unfunnily absurd, that we need to double-up on and combine allegories as in, “The Emperor has no clothes as he fiddles while Rome’s burning.”
“The most common types of injuries analysed in the study were bone fractures and superficial injuries.”
When it’s hot, it’s the beer that does this …
Slips, Trips, and Falls. By far the most common safety incident.
https://www.osha.gov/dte/grant_materials/fy06/46e0-ht10-06.html
Studies show that injuries correlate positively with certain prior statements by the injured person. “Hey, fellers, watch this! has the highest correlation.
jorge –
Magic!
Much enjoyed.
And if anyone doubts you, they should go to The Darwin Awards.
Auto
Or 1000 Ways to Die
The real problem isn’t people who die at work – it’s distinguishing the dead ones who didn’t fall over from the ones who just fell asleep on their feet.
Given Spain’s world-renown labour productivity, it’s a miracle of science that the author was able to find any study subjects.
Labor productivity depends on the location, type of work, whether the work force is unionized, union rules, education and training, etc. I think fishermen working the northern coast are definitely harder working than those skinny english fishermen we tow to port because we are such good guys.
When do we get the Fawlty Towers “I’m sorry, he’s from Barcelona” snippet? I’d do it but I don’t know how.
Can I get anyone else with actual industrial safety experience to comment on this and not just snark? This is measuring a real phenomenon, but it’s just been nonsensically hijacked by climate change.
In high heat, you do have not only injuries directly due to heat, such as dehydration and heat stroke, but you also have more minor problems, such as sweat getting in your eyes, sweaty hands, or dizziness due to overheating. These can cause you to slip and fall, especially on staircases.
Extreme cold has the problems of ice, lower visibility due to snow or glasses-fog, and lack of attention due to the cold. Stairs are again a problem due to slipperiness and people keeping their hands close to shiver rather than holding onto the handrails.
Most industrial injuries are categorized as slip-and-fall (if you notice, the most common problems they cited are surface injuries and broken bones, which are primarily due to ]falling). Anything that can interfere with coordination can cause problems. Then, rushing is also associated with trouble, and that’s constant whenever you have very high or very low temperatures, as people are trying to get inside.
Extreme weather is well documented to be a safety hazard. This isn’t unusual or revolutionary.
Take 10 seconds to think … Count the people outside in warmer weather, is the injury rate outside to inside especially to broken bones and abrasions the same?
Hint: They simply study the OHS insurance claims at no point do they adjust for different outside populations they simply assume they are the same. That is the basis of the increase.
Fact: If it rains workers either can not do there work or are not permitted to do there work outside … is it usually cold or warm when it rains? This shows how badly the figures can be distorted if you don’t correct for populations.
If they did the study properly you would have injury rates per certain number of population and the conditions they were working in car/outside/inside etc but this isn’t science it’s OHS and Climate Science.
Hello Ben, I chaired the safety committee at a medical device company for a couple years. I was the first worker bee to have this responsibility.
Weather or seasonal changes can coincide with an increase in accidents. But the root cause is behavioral. People don’t adapt to a sudden or unexpected event. They got complacent or comfortable in their habits.
Take a rain storm, people will walk through a door and see the puddle of water on the floor and think goodness, this a fall hazard, someone needs to take care of it and then walks by. Tag, they are that somebody.
We went from 80+ accidents in one year down to three in the next year.
The main change is to get people to think for themselves and give them the authority and support to act.
Another major factor in accidents are the workers being new or being the most experienced.
The first group doesn’t know better, the second does but but has become over confident.
I think this is close to your own experiences.
michael
Mike,
You about sum it up.
I would mention how clued the management is.
Safety posters, for example.
They should be moved around [or changed] every five days.
Otherwise they are wall paper.
You say –
“The main change is to get people to think for themselves and give them the authority and support to act.”
And you are spot-on. Absolutely spot-on.
Thanks!
Auto
My older brother used to work as a trim carpenter and he once told me that it’s not the newbie woodworkers who lose fingers. It’s the experienced ones who get caught up in the routine and stop paying attention.
That’s right. The study is fairly simple minded, but it does point out there may be a need to change some work rules sometime in the next 50 years.
My impression is that more emphasis on safety and accident avoidance is needed at an early age (say middle and high school).
Here in Spain there’s a certain neglect on very subtle design issues, although I do think the people working counter terrorism are very sharp. The one significant attack we suffered recently happened in Barcelona, where the city government is run by a communist. This lady ignored advice to install barriers which stop vehicles from running over pedestrians, and the local police (The Mossos) were so keen on the separatist baloney they neglected to investigate properly when a house being used by Moroccans to build bombs exploded. They were so sloppy a key bad guy who died in the explosion remained in the rubble and they didn’t figure this out until the survivors struck in Barcelona.
I tend to think the more to the left they are the more careless, lazy, and dumb. And this country has a ton of leftists because they allow reds to teach their garbage in schools.. I believe the USA is now undergoing the same decay process.
“The biological mechanisms…” “… are not yet fully understood.”
The effects of dehydration and heatstroke on mental performance are fairly well known.
The effects of water in it’s solid state on mobility are also well understood. Even Spain has winter days with ice and snow.
Nothing like falling from a Wind Turbine you have to maintain. This is a fatality, literally caused by Global Warming. In just the UK, it affects180 people a year.
http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/accidents.pdf
Jeff,
The [excellent] referenced document mentions a total of 137 deaths, worldwide, of which 113 are post 1999.
Auto
Is this another spoof study?
It has GOT to be !
Ha ha ha, I’m not falling for it THIS time.
Oh, wait, it’s REALLY serious. Or is it? I’m torn.
Either way, it’s probably the stupidest study that I have heard of to date.
NEXT UP: Global Warming To Diminish Sex Drive, … Global Warming To Increase Incidence of Hiccups, … Global Warming To Reduce IQ, … Global Warming To Worsen Racism, … Global Warming To Cause More Animal Abuse, … and I could go on.
Global Warming to Make Everything Bad More Frequent, Everything Good More Rare.
Global warming is going to cause another doubling…….of labor lawyers.
Climate-change occupational safety lawsuits could be the next big thing. Dang, I wish I had gone to law school ! Thar’s gold in them thar frills (i.e., frivolous lawsuits).
Why was this study not affected by Section 155 ?
https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/09/19/inenglish/1505810381_137420.html
Section 155 was used to stop the separatist coup plotters to keep violating human rights, the constitution and the law.
Yep, bad people like those who separated without the permission of their king in 1776.
But it’s the government in madrid who is selling spain. They are the real plotters changing independent spain in just a powerless province of the Eu.
And what human rights are you talking about ?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Yellow_ribbon.svg
Separatists who won the elections organised by madrid.
The law made by people who didn’t want others to have their say.
The constitution made by people who didn’t want what they didn’t like.
And voting is violating a human right?
….Absurd claim: global warming to increase on-the-job injuries..
Accurate claim: global warming to increase taxes…
There. Fixed that for you…
“Preventive measures that could be incorporated into public health policies include restricting work during the coldest and HOTTEST hours,”
La siesta
” lugares colonizados por España, y en la misma España, situada al sur de Europa, en ese lapso es cuando hace más calor”
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siesta
“SPANISH students currently enjoy the longest school holidays in Europe, going a whopping three months with no classes…”
http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2015/08/22/spanish-school-holidays-too-long/
On the other hand, in Spain many jobs let out at 8 PM. Regarding the number of school days, it seems to be adequate. I attended school in the USA, and took mostly honors/advanced courses. Now that I’m retired in Spain, I mentor some students on science projects, and see what they learn. My impression is that a Spanish REGULAR MATH, CHEMISTRY or PHYSICS curriculum is harder and more comprehensive than the USA honors/advanced counterpart. They make it so hard it drives away students into the humanities (those I don’t really monitor much, although I believe the courses are taught by communists). And of course it drives away the girls. This means very few females study engineering and hard core science.
The problem in Spain is associated with the socialist laws which created poor work incentives. Spain is like California’s future, in say 20-30 years.
That’s why the Catalans want/need to leave. And now with the socialist in power again the sooner the better.
“They make it so hard it drives away students into the humanities ” “And of course it drives away the girls”
Why think in gender ? I want the best people on the job so make it hard.
Something there is that doesn’t love a lie.
It is something of a psychology lesson. Why does fear of more ‘extremely average’ temperatures frighten global-warmers?
Look at it as an insight into how their mind works: More of extreme higher temperatures is bad, and more of extreme lower temperatures is also bad. Therefore more of extreme temperatures in-between must also be bad too.
That is how their mind (singular) tends to work,but in the past they didn’t claim to be scientists or apply for funding based on their perceptions. As government funding for the Arts in academia has become progressively harder in relative terms over recent decades, more of them have to pretend to be scientists in order to get funding. The later economic development of Spain means that they have been more prone to the insanity oozing out of EU elites employed as bureaucrats in Brussels and Strasburg, because it came with free money attached.
When I was in college, back in the early 1970s, I worked summers in the Chrysler car and truck assembly plants in Fenton, MO. I unloaded everything from tires to bales of fiberglass batting from semi-trailers onto racks, I drove fork lifts, I was a janitor, and I worked on the assembly line. A major manufacturing plant in Missouri in the summer time is a very, very hot place. Interior temperatures were seldom below 100 F, even at night. On every vertical column in the place was a salt station, a place where anyone could grab a few hundred milligrams of salt tablets at any time. The young ones, like me, were big consumers. As a janitor, I worked everywhere in the plant. My least favorite place was the paint booth, which I likened to Dante’s Inferno. It was hot by design, with heat lamps trained on the cars to dry the paint as quickly as possible. I’d say it was easily 120 F even when the line was stopped for us janitors to go in. The people who did the actual painting (now done by robots) wore heavy coveralls, and were supposed to wear full face respirators (though few did). I don’t know how they survived. But they did, and I recall only a handful of people being injured on the job in several summers working there. Not a single one was heat-related. A father and son working on the rail dock were killed when a boxcar door fell on them. A fork lift driver was badly injured on his first night, when the elevator on the paint floor (the second floor) gave way under the front wheels of his 10,000 pound fork lift. That’s it, AFAIR.
I could have just said “This is BS.” But I thought I’d back it up.
Pointing out an individual experience, even in a paint shop with others, is not a refutation of a study of 16M injuries.
Unless they can provide the temperature at the time of the injury as well as the humidity, which is very important to physiological stress, such statistics are meaningless. I do not see that level of examination here. Man injuries could just as well occur in the off peak temperature of the day and still be judged by the peal temperature.
Yes the whole thing suffers from the Exposure Fallacy. And this is Spain, where the work day still avoids the midday heat across much of the country.
Why not read the paper before passing judgement?
analysed data related to nearly 16 million occupational injuries in Spain between 1994 and 2013 that resulted in at least one day of sick leave. This information was analysed in relation to the daily temperatures in the province where each injury occurred.
Back in the 1930s there was a huge increrase in the purchase of radio licences. There was also a huge increase in the diagnoses of mental disorders.
One could conclude owning a radio was likely to send one mad.
So let’s see. It’s been shown that productivity is reduced at higher temperatures. It’s been shown that cognitive abilities are impaired at higher temperatures. But it’s absurd for on the job injuries to be greater at higher temperatures? It’s actually absurd to take that position. Gee, when is your focus on a task at hand better – when it’s hot, or when it’s normal temperatures? There’s a reason why siestas were adopted in warm climate countries.
Is it possible that more injuries occur during warmer times because of more work and more dangerous work being done during the warmer times of the year?
In most places I have lived construction work, landscaping and road building slows way down in the winter, then ramps back up in the summer.
Another possibility is that more people taking a vacation in the warmer months mean other people have to cover for them either doing more work and/or work they are less familiar with.