Page 32 - OHS, October 2024

W I N T E R H A Z A R D S
Expanding the Scope of Winter Safety
Like it or not, winter is coming. Are you ready for the snow, ice and — complacency?
BY RAY PREST
live in a four-season region, there’s
Like it or not, winter is coming. If you
no escaping winter’s frigid mess, or
the safety issues it brings with it.
Winter hazards are nothing if not pre-
dictable. Slip hazards due to frozen ice.
Frostbite and other forms of cold stress.
Housekeeping issues in entrances and
walkways as employees track slush through
the workplace. How they appear may vary
from one incident to the next, but every
year, some permutation of these safety is-
sues will pose a threat as the weather turns
colder. And every year, safety professionals
will dust off their talking points on winter
weather hazards.
In safety meetings and toolbox talks,
safety folks remind workers to test their
footing when they exit a vehicle. Th ey tell
people about the hazards of slush-covered
surfaces and remind them to use wet-fl oor
signs. Th ey emphasize the need for insu-
lated clothing and monitoring oneself for
signs of cold stress.
Th ese eff orts are well-intentioned.
Th ey’re also not overly eff ective. Injury
Facts tracks temperature-related fatalities
in a single category, titled “Natural Heat or
Cold.” Looking at only December, January
and February to isolate for cold-induced
Halfpoint/stock.adobe.com
fatalities, the data reveals that the number
of fatal incidents has stubbornly refused to
decline from 2013 to 2022, the most recent
year for which there is data. In that time,
the rate of cold fatalities has held largely
steady, with a notable uptick in 2021 and
2022. If anything, things are getting worse.
It seems reasonable to suggest this is a
result of more extreme weather patterns,
though further shoveling through the data
may be necessary to confi rm. But there is
no shortage of severe winter weather, as the
National Centers for Environmental Infor-
mation Storm Event Database document-
ed almost 120,000 severe winter weather
events in the past decade.
Aft er years of the same safety meetings
on icy hazards, complacency can’t help but
set in. Th is diminishes the eff ect of these
interventions, as workers start to tune it
out. Employees feel like aft er all this time
they know how to deal with the cold, and
then they end up on their backside because
the slip potential of ice was the furthest
thing from their minds.
If the current approach is failing to
make a dent in winter fatalities, and the
weather isn’t letting up, then something
needs to give. Safety folks need a more sus-
tainable and eff ective approach to warming
workers to the dangers of the cold.
Th ere are two basic ways to achieve this
end. Th e fi rst is to talk about existing win-
ter hazards in new ways. Th e goal here is to
fi nd more engaging approaches to the cold-
related safety issues that have been in dis-
cussion for years. Th e second is to expand
the boundaries of what workers think of as
a winter hazard because there’s a lot more
to winter safety than contending with snow
and ice.
Warming Up Cold Weather Safety
Th e English language contains plenty of dif-
ferent terms for foul winter weather—such
as snowstorm, blizzard, whiteout, snowfall,
hail, icy blast, sleet, freezing rain and snow
squall—and there are just as many ways
to talk about winter’s safety eff ects in the
workplace. If you’re having trouble getting
traction with winter safety, then it’s time to
change how you tread.
Unless the basics have been covered,
then start there. Th is means talking about
winter hazards in toolbox talks and putting
up signs to highlight seasonal safety chal-
lenges like frostbite and ice. But it takes
more than that to heat up a cold weather
safety program.
Because winter hazards arrive year in
and year out, fi nd approaches that encour-
age employees to shake off plenty of com-
placency. Take a diff erent tack in safety
meetings by getting workers to participate.
One option is to ask them to predict when
and where a cold-weather injury might oc-
cur. Or instruct them to rank winter haz-
ards according to their relevance to the
workplace. Or ask workers how they would
educate their kids about cold stress if they
got a job on the crew.
Alternately, take a 24/7 view of winter
hazards—by discussing safety beyond the
workplace—to expand the options on the
topic and as a way to encourage workers
to think diff erently about winter safety. In
many ways, the exact content of winter
safety talks doesn’t matter. Th e point is to
get workers actively thinking for them-
selves—and that is done by fi nding ways
for them to think through the same-old
hazards in a new way.
32 Occupational Health & Safety | OCTOBER 2024 www.ohsonline.com