Most employees exposed to unfavourable microclimate conditions were employed in the private sector [Working conditions in 2020, Spatistics Poland, Warsaw 2021].

Fig. 1 Percentage of employed employees in the cold and hot environments in the public and private sectors.

The highest number of people exposed to the hot microclimate was employed in the following sectors: mining and quarrying (54%), manufacturing (34%), and construction (6%) (Figure 2). In the case of the cold microclimate, the largest number of employees were in the following sectors: manufacturing (44%), trade and repair of motor vehicles (40%), transportation and storage (5%) and construction (5%) (Figure 2).

Fig. 2 Employed in hazardous microclimate conditions by individual sectors

Despite the existence of legal provisions and the disseminated knowledge about the assessment and possibilities of reducing microclimate hazards in the work environment, they still occur. In 2020, more than 9.2 thousand threats in the hot microclimate and over 4.2 thousand threats in the cold microclimate were liquidated or limited (Figure 3). Nevertheless, in 2020, further threats were revealed in the hot and cold microclimate in the number of over 4.2 thousand and 2.7 thousand respectively. (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 The number of threats to microclimate liquidated/limited and revealed in 2020