Cold environment areas are one of the riskiest places to work in. There are long-term health-related risks from overexposure to cold, as well as immediate physical risks like slips and falls. Therefore, safety while working in these environments is incredibly important.
To minimize accidents and risks in cool rooms and other cold working environments, you need to understand the risks present. This way, you can understand how to best look after yourself and your employees at work. To help you, we will be discussing the dangers and how best to manage them.
What are the Dangers?
When subjected to extreme cold temperatures, your body temperature can reach dangerous lows, resulting in a number of problems. These are just a few you may face:
- Increased likelihood of arthritis, rheumatism, bronchitis, and muscle or tissue damage: Extreme cold can make it harder for your body to properly function, leading to potential damage to muscles and soft tissue, as well as respiratory issues.
- Reduction of sensitivity and dexterity: As you get colder, you may notice reduced sensation in body parts, particularly fingers and toes. With this reduced sensation, you will likely also so reduced dexterity. This can make work difficult if you cannot reliably handle merchandise.
- Hypothermia: This is a real and serious risk of working in a cold environment. Symptoms include stiff hands, uncontrolled shivering, slurred speech, irrational behavior and loss of motor coordination. If not treated properly and quickly, it can lead to unconsciousness and sometimes death.
- Reproductive disorders: Pregnant women should not be exposed to cold temperatures for long periods of time. The cold and associated symptoms can affect the foetus.
- Frostbite: When exposed to the cold for a long time, soft tissue on your face, hands and feet can begin to freeze. Frostbite can cause serious damage and may result in amputations.
Safety Tips to Implement:
1. Training and supervision
All workers should be properly trained when it comes to working in cold environments. They should understand the dangers present and how to identify early warning signs that someone is suffering from any cold-related problems. There should be multiple members of each team trained in appropriate first aid.
It can also be helpful to provide regular health assessments for workers. This can ensure workers are following guidelines and not putting themselves at risk unnecessarily. It can also prevent problems or illnesses getting worse.
Additionally, any cold working areas should be under constant supervision. This can ensure injuries and accidents are minimized. Read here to know tips to maintain your warehouse floor to avoid accidents.
2. Time limits
No one should spend all day in a cold room. Ensure workers are aware of this and follow set time limits. The time limit will depend on the nature of the work and the temperature of the environment.
When workers take breaks, make sure they can take it in a warm room. Provide warm drinks and food with high calorie counts to help their bodies recover from the cold.
Also, experts suggest having workers rotate working in cold environments to prevent additional stress to the body. Schedule your rosters accordingly.
3. Proper clothing and safety equipment
You need to wear appropriate protective clothing while working in cold environments. This includes gloves, insulated boots and face coverings. Along with this, you also need to wear several layers of loose clothing to ensure proper insulation. Clothing needs to be loose enough that blood circulation is not restricted and movement is not hampered.
As cold rooms can be slippery, shoes should be slip-proof and waterproof. Clothing should also be waterproof. Otherwise, workers may get colder quickly and be at risk of a number of problems.
4. Handle items and equipment properly
As in any environment, workers need to understand how to use equipment properly. This is especially important in a cold environment as there are already increased safety risks. Workers need to follow safety guides and keep equipment in good condition.
Make sure equipment is regularly checked to ensure it is safe to use. Have an emergency management plan to handle any potential equipment problems.
Additionally, train workers how best to handle items in the cold environment. This can include proper carrying and picking up procedures, as well as how to stack items to prevent damage. Knowing these skills will help prevent workers hurting themselves or damaging merchandise.
General Safety Tips to Follow:
- Encourage workers to take regular breaks and to fuel up on warm food and drink
- Avoid exhaustion and fatigue as energy is needed to keep warm
- Always change wet clothes immediately — have spare clothes available
It is important that employees are safe at work. This includes making sure they know how to work safely in a cold environment. As a business owner, you need to help them do this with appropriate training, supervision and facilities.
