Media Release

For Immediate Release
January 15, 2004
Contact: Mary Jo Takach 222-7822 (623-0479)

RI Department of Health Severe Cold Weather Advisory

As the temperatures fall into or below the zero range and the wind chill increases, The Rhode Island Department of Health recommends the following:

• To prevent frostbite or hypothermia (low body temperature), avoid going outdoors unless necessary and dressed for extreme cold.
• The higher the wind, the shorter the outdoor safe exposure time.
• A healthy, properly dressed, active person (including children and adolescents) can be outside for a few minutes in severe cold without harm but should stay indoors as much as possible. Temperature and wind chill combined can damage skin or extremities (nose, ears, hands, feet) in less than 15 minutes.
• Children should not play or walk outside or be left standing at a bus stop
• If you must be outside, a shelter or windbreak helps.

At the first signs of redness or pain in any skin area, get out of the cold or protect any exposed skin. Frostbite may be beginning. Signs of actual frostbite include

• A white or grayish-yellow skin area ("ashy" if dark-skinned)
• Skin that feels unusually firm or waxy
• Numbness—which means the victim may be unaware of frostbite.

Outdoor, cold weather dressing has three main safety principles:

• Wear as many lose fitting layers as possible, topped by a winter coat or jacket
• Minimize skin exposure outside (hats that cover the ears, mittens rather than gloves, ski masks or scarves over the face, heavy socks and shoes)
• Change any damp clothing immediately (especially socks or underwear)

Those most at risk in the cold (indoors or outside) are:

• Elderly persons (even 65 degrees indoors may be too cold if the person is inactive), with inadequate food or poorly dressed or living alone.
• Babies sleeping in cold rooms
• Children left unattended
• Anyone with circulatory problems or taking high blood pressure medication
• Adults under the influence of alcohol
• Mentally ill individuals and
• People who remain outdoors for long periods of time (including the homeless, outdoor workers, runners, hikers, etc)
• Smoking constricts blood vessels/limits blood flow/ increases susceptibility to cold.

For more information on the body’s reaction to severe cold, including a list of medications and disorders which increase the risk of hypothermia, consult the Department of Health Extreme Cold page.