The Sun...how often do we wake up in the morning and see a bright sunny morning and say what a nice day it is going to be. Well for a construction worker who has to spend his day in the Sun it is the opposite feeling that greets him upon waking up.

Most construction workers spend the whole day working out in the Sun lifting heavy equipment and performing tasks that take a lot of effort. The one thing they can do without the hot Sun beating down on them is work on the inside of a house doing things like sheet-rocking and flooring. At times the Sun is so hot that a construction worker might feel uncomfortable enough to hurry things up. This puts him, and his life, and the lives of his co-workers at risk because his hurrying may cause construction errors that could prove fatal to those working on or occupying the building.

Often the heat is made worse from the protection gear workers need to wear. This gear is for their own safety but is often so well insulated that the Sun heats workers to the point where they are literally cooked in their own sweat. Many of them suffer from excessive heat disorders like heat stroke, dehydration, heat cramps, and others.

Also while working the workers have to make provisions for the effect of the Sun on their equipment and on the material they use. In the heat material tends to expand and sometimes the tools become too hot to handle. Conversely, lack of Sun causes the opposite problems with materials and equipment. They become so cold that they contract, become brittle, and are too cold to work with.

We see that the life of a construction worker is not made pleasant by the Sun and it really makes his job much more difficult.

   

©Copyright 1998 Elizabeth Beckett, Holly Bernitt, and Vishwa Chandra.