There are some jobs that are a little more exposed to the elements than others.
For example, on a day when the temperature reached 32C, the Humidex was 38, and the sun beat down relentlessly, you wouldn’t want to be a roofer.
“Well, it’s pretty hot,” says Alain Beland of Sanderson Roofing. “Thank God for that little breeze we have.”
Beland’s crew was preparing a roof to be re-tarred. The key, he says, is to drink plenty of water, and take plenty of breaks in the shade. On a day like this, most roofers will call it a day by lunchtime.
And Beland adds they’ll wait for cooler weather to apply new tar, which comes out of the pump at over 245C. “It’s not the day to do it,” he says.
But it’s not always the obvious jobs that can be affected by the heat. Dean Nguyen says his workplace can hit temperatures of 50C on a hot day. He runs a food truck in downtown Ottawa, a tightly-enclosed metal kitchen with a hot grill and no air-conditioning. For him, hydration is the key. “You have to drink lots of water before you start, for sure,” he says. “A lot of ice water in the freezer.”
Then there are workers who don’t just work in the heat, they work because of it.
Nicole Giroux is an outreach worker with the Salvation Army. She says when the city issues a heat advisory, they will work 20 hours a day making sure their homeless clients have plenty of water and anything else they need, including light summer clothing. “They’re often overdressed because they don’t really have anywhere to store their property,” says Giroux. “(They) wear all their clothing.”
The way these workers adapt to the heat mirrors the advice offered by Ottawa Public Health which includes drinking plenty of water, wearing loose-fitting clothing, and reducing strenuous outdoor activity.
