Brrr-ing Down the Risk of Cold-Related Injuries

As we said in yesterday’s Advisor, the two main health hazards of working in cold weather are frostbite and hypothermia.

Fortunately, there are simple precautions employees can take to minimize cold weather risks. For example:

• Dressing properly, including adequately protecting hands, feet, and head
  
• Keeping active while outdoors in the cold
  
• Taking frequent breaks in a warm place
  
• Changing out of wet clothes
  
• Being familiar with and watching for frostbite and hypothermia symptoms
  
• Moving into a warm place if feeling very cold or numb

It’s also important for employees who work outside in the cold weather to be mindful of factors that increase the risk of frostbite and hypothermia, such as:

• Age
  
• Weight
  
• Smoking and drinking
  
• Certain medications, allergies, or poor circulation
  
• Windchill
  
• Failure to recognize symptoms and take prompt action

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Think you have no time to train? Think again. BLR’s 7-Minute Safety Trainer helps you fulfill key OSHA-required training tasks in as little as 7 minutes. Try it at no cost and see!

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Symptoms and Treatment

Make sure your employees can recognize frostbite and hypothermia symptoms and know the proper first aid for each.

Frostbite Symptoms

• Feeling extremely cold, numb, tingly, or achy, especially in extremities
  
• White or grayish-yellow glossy skin, sometimes followed by blisters

Frostbite Treatment

• Warm frozen body part with blankets or warm (not hot) water.
  
• Don’t rub affected body parts, break blisters, or give victims caffeinated drinks.
  
• Don’t warm victims with a hot stove, fire, heat lamp, or hot water bottle.
  
• Exercise warmed body part (but stay off frostbitten feet).
  
• Get medical attention.

Hypothermia Symptoms

• Chills, shivering, numbness
  
• Slurred speech, poor coordination, confusion, drowsiness

Hypothermia Treatment

• Cover victim with blankets and/or provide body heat.
  
• Don’t give hot bath or use electric blanket or hot water bottle.
  
• Keep victim awake.
  
• Get medical attention.

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Can you picture safety training in effective, 7-minute sessions? Get the details.

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A Safety Training Clearinghouse

To help you train employees in winter hazards and precautions, BLR’s 7-Minute Safety Trainer has the perfect session, titled “Working in the Cold.” In fact, the information you’ve just been reading has been excerpted from the trainer’s outline and trainee handout for this session.

Of course, every session in 7-Minute Safety Trainer has an easy-to-follow trainer’s outline and illustrated handout as well as a quiz and quiz answers to get your points across quickly—and cost-effectively.

All told, this “trainer’s bible” contains 50 prewritten meetings covering almost every aspect of safety you’d want or need to train on, in a format designed to be taught in as little as 7 minutes. Major topics include:

—Confined spaces
—Electrical safety
—Fire safety and emergency response
—HazCom
—Machine guarding and lockout/tagout
—Material handling
—PPE use and care
—Housekeeping/slips, trips, and falls
—and dozens more

Just make as many copies as you need of the included handouts and quizzes, and you’re ready to train.

Equally important is that the program ships new meetings every quarter to respond to new and changed regulations. This service is included in the program price, which averages just over $1 a working day. In fact, this is one of BLR’s most popular safety programs.

If you’d like to personally evaluate 7-Minute Safety Trainer and see how it can build safety awareness, we’ll be happy to send it to you for 30 days on a no-cost, no-obligation trial basis. Just let us know, and we’ll arrange it.

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