Avoid Slips and Falls: Walk Like a Penguin
The waddle keeps your center of gravity over your front leg and will help keep you upright. Spread your feet out slightly, to increase your center of gravity, and take small steps.Also, keep your hands out of your pockets while walking — that decreases your center of gravity and balance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You need your arms for balance.
Snow Shoveling Safety
Nationwide, snow shoveling is responsible for thousands of injuries and as many as 100 deaths each year. National Safety Council recommends the following tips to shovel safely:
- Do not shovel after eating or while smoking
- Take it slow and stretch out before you begin
- Shovel only fresh, powdery snow; it’s lighter
- Push the snow rather than lifting it
- If you do lift it, use a small shovel or only partially fill the shovel
- Lift with your legs, not your back
Snow Blower Safety
Be safe with these tips from the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons
- If the blower jams, turn it off
- Keep your hands away from the moving parts
- Do not drink alcohol and use the snow blower
- Be aware of the carbon monoxide risk of running a snow blower in an enclosed space
- Refuel your snow blower when it is off, never when it is running
Avoiding Frostbite and Hypothermia
Even skin that is protected can be subject to frostbite.Superficial frostbite affects the skin surface, while the underlying tissue remains soft. The skin appears white, waxy or grayish-yellow and is cold and numb.
If the condition is allowed to progress to deep frostbite, all layers of the skin are affected and the outcome likely will be more serious. The skin will become completely numb, blisters may form and eventually the skin tissue dies and turns black.
Hypothermia occurs when the body’s temperature drops below 95 degrees. Severe shivering, one of the first signs of hypothermia, is beneficial in keeping the body warm. But as hypothermia progresses, shivering gives way to drowsiness or exhaustion, confusion, shallow breathing, irregular heartbeat, slurred speech, loss of coordination and, eventually, unconsciousness and even death.