Summer heat
Most people feel well in sunny weather. For healthy adults, no health problems are to be expected during periods of heat or heat waves and with a normal lifestyle - provided they drink enough fluids and eat enough food and avoid excessive sunlight. In pregnant women and chronically ill people, as well as children, the heat regulation mechanisms are often disturbed and problems arise.
What can each individual do for themselves or others?
- You must provide your body with sufficient fluids. Cool (not cold) drinks such as drinking water, water-juice mixtures and low-salt broths are suitable for this. In addition to individual supplies, publicly accessible drinking water dispensers are available at fourteen locations on campus. You will find drinking water dispensers in the buildings EF 50, SRG I, CT-EF 68, HG II, EF 61, Sport, Audimax, OH 4a, OH 12, HG I, MB III and in the foyers of the C/P building OH 4 and OH 6.
- Avoid direct sunlight. It is better to stay in the shade or in darkened rooms. If you are exposed to heat, you should make particular use of the option of mobile working and working on shaded outdoor areas of the TU.
- Use the cool morning temperatures to ventilate rooms intensively. Keep the windows closed if the outside temperature is higher than the room temperature.
- Pay attention to your colleagues, family and friends. They should also behave in line with the high summer temperatures.
- Use sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat when you are outdoors.
There are further tips for active people and athletes in particular:
- Choose the optimum training time, i.e. avoid the midday sun at all costs.
- Choose shaded exercise areas and routes.
- Protect your head and eyes.
- Know SOS measures.
General measures at TU Dortmund University are:
- during the lecture-free period of the summer semester, employees are permitted to bring forward the start of working hours to 6 a.m. until 30.09 of each year. The maintenance of business operations, compliance with duty rosters and the proper handling of urgent and deadline matters must be ensured.
- For pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, more extensive individual arrangements can be agreed with local supervisors.
- For people with severe disabilities, further individual arrangements should be agreed with your local supervisor that take into account disability-related needs.
- In the long term, TU Dortmund University will work towards counteracting temperature stress in design and construction measures on campus, e.g. by consistently increasing the number of deciduous trees in front of service buildings to shade and shade glass surfaces on buildings.
- A service agreement was concluded in summer 2022.
Special measures for employees in the industrial-technical area according to the service agreement on working in hot weather at TU Dortmund University
Employees who work physically in workshops, laboratories, print shops or similar facilities receive additional paid cooling phases for acclimatization and fluid intake on working days with room-specific indoor temperatures above 26 degrees Celsius.
TU Dortmund University has concluded a service agreement on working in the summer heat. You can find the text in the Official Notices or an English translation (pdf) here.
Monitoring of temperature measurements
The exposure of workplaces to heat is determined by indoor temperature measurements in six defined reference rooms. If the room temperature measured at the reference points exceeds 26 oCat more than three of the six measuring points, it can be assumed that the workplace is exposed to heat. Among other things, the pollution of the agreed reference rooms is indicated by means of a colored traffic light and the measures are listed.
Status, the display is shown from June 2026.
Only when the indoor temperature rises above +35oC are the affected rooms no longer suitable as workspaces. A suitable alternative solution regarding the work location must be found in consultation with supervisors.