Cold environmental conditions can lead to cold stress in workers. If not properly treated, cold-stressed workers can suffer serious health consequences or compromise workplace safety. Employers can help protect workers from cold stress by educating them about the condition, controlling workplace temperatures with heaters or windbreaks, rotating work so no one is exposed to the cold too long, scheduling work at warmer times, pacing work or necessary breaks, and encouraging the "buddy system."

Construction workers may be at risk for cold stress when working:

• outdoors on a cold day
• in a refrigerated room
• in an unheated building
• in cold wind, rain, or snow
• while handling cold objects or materials

Hazardous health effects of cold stress include dehydration, numbness, frostbite, immersion foot (trench foot), and hypothermia. If the body loses its ability to maintain a normal temperature, the body temperature lowers and other symptoms may result such as violent shivering, slow or slurred speech, confusion, hallucinations, a weak and irregular pulse, or unconsciousness.

Certain people are more susceptible to cold stress. People who are not physically fit, have a chronic illness, drink alcohol or take drugs (including prescription drugs), are wet or damp from work or weather, are fatigued, are exposed to vibration from tools, don't wear proper clothing, or are not used to working in cold have a higher risk for cold stress.

Fed/OSHA offers a Cold Stress Card that outlines recommendations for preventing cold stress. To download a copy of the card in English visit www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3156.pdf; for the Spanish version visit www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3158.pdf. The card's recommendations include recognizing environmental conditions and health symptoms that may be dangerous; layering proper clothing; eating warm, high-calorie foods; avoiding exhaustion or fatigue; seeking warm break locations; and replacing lost fluids with warm, sweet, non-caffeine drinks to avoid dehydration.

By taking the necessary precautions, employers and workers together can minimize the potential for cold stress.

Courtesy of State Compensation Insurance Fund. For further information or additional articles, please visit www.scif.com.