Prolonged exposure to extremely cold temperatures can often result in cold stress which includes fatigue and mild to serious health issues such as increased risk of incident/injury, hypothermia frostbite/trench foot and other long-term health effects.
Health effects resulting from cold exposure. The participants reported that they had abnormal symptoms, which included musculoskeletal system symptoms, discomfort, respiratory symptoms, episodic finger symptoms, face and skin symptoms, peripheral circulation symptoms, and cardiovascular symptoms (Table 3).
The serious risks of working in cold environments
Frostbite. This is where the fluids in the body tissues actually freeze, causing permanent damage to the skin. Body parts at the most risk to this are the extremities; fingers, toes, the nose and the ear lobes. Hypothermia.
Prolonged exposure to cold will eventually use up your body's stored energy. The result is hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperature. A body temperature that is too low affects the brain, making the victim unable to think clearly or move well.
Prolonged exposure to extremely cold temperatures can often result in cold stress which includes fatigue and mild to serious health issues such as increased risk of incident/injury, hypothermia frostbite/trench foot and other long-term health effects.
Moderate and severe symptoms: loss of coordination; • inability to stand up; • dilated pupils; • confusion; • slurred speech; • slow heart rate or breathing; • loss of consciousness; and • death.
According to the FSIS, freezer burn doesn't make food unsafe, but rather it makes it dry in spots which is a quality issue not food safety issue. These dry areas appear as grayish-brown spots and are caused by air coming into contact with the surface of the food.
If the odour smells like strong chemicals or gas, then your fridge freezer could be leaking refrigerant. Inhaling this can be very dangerous! If it's safe to do so, turn the unit off. Then, get out of your house and call a technician as soon as you can.
Freezing to 0 °F inactivates any microbes — bacteria, yeasts and molds — present in food. Once thawed, however, these microbes can again become active, multiplying under the right conditions to levels that can lead to foodborne illness.
How much does a Freezer Worker make? As of Jan 27, 2025, the average hourly pay for a Freezer Worker in the United States is $17.21 an hour.
As outlined in this chapter, cold indoor temperatures have been associated with increased blood pressure, asthma symptoms and poor mental health. Cold homes contribute to excess winter mortality and morbidity.
Although there's no legal maximum or minimum working temperature, health and safety guidance is that a reasonable temperature should usually be at least 16°C. If much of the work involves a lot of physical effort, it's 13°C. What is reasonable also depends on the working environment and type of work.
While there are no specific federal regulations about working in extreme cold or heat, you do have a right to a workplace “free from recognized hazards .” That includes exposure to extreme cold and heat. Some states do have more rigorous rules regarding heat, and you can find the state plans here .
Workers exposed to extreme cold or cold environments may experience cold stress and be at risk for a cold-related illness. Types of cold-related illness include hypothermia, frostbite, trench foot, and chilblains.
Refrigerator and Freezer Hazards
Loss of electrical power can produce extremely hazardous situations. Flammable or toxic vapors may be released from refrigerators and freezers as chemicals warm up and/or certain reactive materials may decompose energetically upon warming.
Freezer burn can give an almost plastic-like aroma to your food—and not just the freezer-burned food, but everything else in there. If you have an ice maker or store ice in the freezer, your cubes will take on that musty smell and go on to infuse it into your beverages.
Appliances such as space heaters, gas stoves, furnaces, heaters, and refrigerators can all emit carbon monoxide if they are poorly ventilated. A gas leak can also be a major cause of carbon monoxide emissions.
While freezer burned food is completely safe to eat, it certainly has a negative effect on the taste and flavors. When you take a bite out of a cooked steak that underwent freezer burn, it will taste dry and nearly flavorless due to the loss of water molecules that contain much of the food's flavor.
You might think that most bacteria wouldn't thrive in the freezer's cold surroundings. They can. Freezer-accumulated frost may contain live bacteria and viruses, including listeria, E. coli, and salmonella because they can survive in sub-zero temperatures.
The signs and symptoms of a severe ice burn include: skin turning and remaining white, dark, or gray. skin feeling numb. skin that feels cold or hard after warming.
An ischemic stroke happens when a blood clot keeps blood from reaching and nourishing the brain. The same factors that make heart attacks more common in cold weather also lead to a higher risk of strokes. Simply put, tighter blood vessels and thicker blood raise the risk of clotting.
Put simply, cold weather alone doesn't make you ill. However, it can increase your chances of becoming ill. This is partly why illnesses such as colds and flu (influenza) are more common in winter months. To understand why this happens, it helps to think about viruses, which cause these illnesses.