UK workers unprotected in hot weather

Too few employers are taking effective measures to protect their workers from the effects of sunlight and hot weather, health and safety consultancy Croner has said.

While cases of skin cancer are on the rise, especially among outdoor workers, the number of businesses backing sun protection for their staff was actually declining, it said.

Only around two-thirds of health and safety professionals supported subsidising sunscreen for staff who worked outdoors this summer. This compared with 80% taken from identical research in summer 2003.

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Croner said it was concerned that too many employers, even those that supported the idea of providing free sunscreen in principle, were not doing anything above the statutory minimum to help prevent skin cancer.

Nasar Farooq, health and safety expert at Croner, said: “Sunshine can be an occupational hazard – along with working in wet and cold weather. That is foreseeable, and so employers must address the risk to their outdoor workers.”