The country experiences above 48°C with 70% humidity in the summer. So, staying cool is of paramount importance
Construction workers in Qatar – thousands of them Indians — working at the World Cup sites have to face burning temperatures. The country experiences above 48°C with 70% humidity in the summer. So, staying cool is of paramount importance. Aryn Baker writing in Time mentions that the construction workers have started wearing a special suit that is “Qatar’s latest weapon in the country’s ongoing battle against heat”.
In a country that regularly exceeds 120°F above 48°C with 70% humidity in the summer, staying cool is paramount. As global temperatures rise due to climate change, clothing designed to protect construction workers on Qatar’s sweltering World Cup projects could start showing up at worksites around the world, all thanks to a sporting event many critics suggested shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Baker points out that “ever since Qatar was awarded the rights to host the World Cup in 2010, human rights organizations and the media have focused on the plight of the country’s 2 million strong migrant labor force. Extreme heat has caused hundreds to die on construction sites for various projects across the country over the past decade. Under pressure, authorities banned all outdoor construction work during the hottest parts of the day during the summer”.
On its part, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the Qatari body in charge of planning and operations for the World Cup, also started looking for technological innovations that would allow workers to stay cool. Baker quotes Mahmoud Qutub, the Supreme Committee’s executive director of workers’ welfare and labour rights saying, “We realized that we needed to come up with something innovative that could adapt to the challenging terrain of construction in Qatar.”
Some 55,000 StayQool suits have been distributed to World Cup construction workers, reducing surface skin temperatures by up to 8°C, according to internal research conducted by Techniche and Qutub’s team
In 2017, Qutub asked the UK-based cooling clothing company Techniche to collaborate on a new suit specifically designed for construction workers in Qatar. The main component, according to the Time report, is a bright orange mesh fabric embedded with phase change materials that absorb and hold heat away from the body. The blue wrist cuffs, collars, and groin-adjacent sashes are imbued with water-activated cooling elements to chill strategic points on the body where blood runs closest to the surface of the skin. Some 55,000 StayQool suits have been distributed to World Cup construction workers, reducing surface skin temperatures by up to 8°C, according to internal research conducted by Techniche and Qutub’s team.
However, it will still take time before construction workers at other sites around the world start wearing the special suit. The ultimate goal is to embed sensors to track individual heart rates, body temperatures, and oxygen levels across an entire worksite so that workers can be taken to safety before they start exhibiting outward signs of heat stress. Qatar has already developed several working prototypes and plans to roll out the sensor-enhanced iteration of the StayQool suit in time for next summer.
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