Studying and working in the heat at TU Dortmund University

Most people are comfortable in sunny weather. For healthy adults, no health problems are to be expected during periods of heat or heat waves and a normal lifestyle - provided: they consume sufficient fluids and food and avoid excessive exposure to the sun. In pregnant women and chronically ill persons, as well as children, the heat regulation mechanisms are often disturbed and thus problems occur.

What can each individual do for themselves or others?

• You must supply your body with sufficient fluids. Cool (not cold) drinks such as drinking water, water-juice mixtures, low-salt broths are suitable for this. To supplement individual supplies, publicly accessible drinking water dispensers are available at five locations. You will find drinking water dispensers in buildings EF50, SRG I and in the foyers of C/P buildings OH 4 and OH 6.
• Avoid direct sunlight. It is more favorable to stay in the shade or in darkened rooms. When exposed to heat, make particular use of the option of mobile working and working in shaded outdoor areas of the TU.
• Take advantage of cooler night and morning temperatures to ventilate rooms intensively. Keep windows closed when the outside temperature is higher than the room temperature.
• Pay attention to your colleagues, family and acquaintances. They, too, should act in accordance with the high summer temperatures.
• Do not stay in enclosed parked vehicles.
• Use sunscreen, sunglasses and headgear when outdoors.

General measures at the TU Dortmund workplace during the summertime are:

• During the lecture-free period of the summer semester, employees are permitted to bring forward the start of duty hours to 6 a.m. until Sept. 30 of each year. The maintenance of duty operations, adherence to duty schedules and the proper completion of urgent and deadline matters must be ensured.
• For pregnant and nursing mothers, more extensive individual arrangements may be agreed with local supervisors.
• For severely disabled persons, more far-reaching individual arrangements should be agreed with local supervisors that take into account disability-related needs.
• In the long term, the TU Dortmund University will work towards counteracting temperature stresses in design and construction measures on campus, e.g. by consistently increasing the number of deciduous trees in front of service buildings to provide shade and shading for glass surfaces on buildings.
• A service agreement was executed in the summer of 2022. The link to the Official Notices and an English translation (pdf, intranet) has been made.
• Until the end of 2023, it will be examined whether some rooms of the TU Dortmund University are suitable to serve as cooling rooms when exposed to heat and whether their number is sufficient.

Further information can be found on the pages of the Department for Occupational, Environmental and Health Protection