Cold Weather Safety Tips

Protect Yourself:

-Dress in several layers of lightweight clothing, which will keep you warmer than a single heavy coat.
-Mittens provide more warmth to your hands than gloves. Wear a hat, preferably one that covers your ears.
-Wear waterproof, insulated boots to keep your feet warm and dry and to maintain your footing in ice and snow.
-Take frequent breaks and stay hydrated.
-Seek medical attention immediately if you have symptoms of hypothermia including confusion, dizziness, exhaustion and severe shivering.
-Seek medical attention immediately if you have symptoms of frostbite including numbness, flushed gray, white, blue or yellow skin discoloration, numbness, or waxy feeling skin.

Protect Yourself at Home:

-Be careful with candles – do not use candles for lighting if the power goes out. Use flashlights only.
-Prevent frozen pipes - when the weather is very cold outside, open cabinet doors to let warm air circulate around water pipes. Keep the thermostat set to a consistent temperature.
-Check smoke alarms once a month by pressing the test button and replace batteries as necessary.
-Don’t overload your electrical outlets.
-Don’t forget your pets – bring them indoors. If you can’t bring them inside, provide adequate shelter to keep them warm and make sure they can get to unfrozen water.
-If you plan on using an alternate heating source, never use a stove or oven to heat your home.
Keep a glass or metal fire screen around the fireplace and never leave a fireplace fire unattended.
-If using a space heater, follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to safely use the heater. Place it on a level, hard, nonflammable surface. Turn the space heater off when you leave the room or go to sleep. Keep children and pets away from your space heater and do not use it to dry wet clothing.

Hints from the Red Cross

Rachael's Comment

The weather has recently picked up after another long cold winter and finally spring seems to be in full flow. The sun is shining, the trees are in blossom, and the birds are singing everyone is making the most of the sun. People’s routines can change dramatically now the sun has appeared, they no longer wear layers upon layers of clothes that cover every inch of flesh but instead they appear to take on the challenge of finding ones that expose the absolute most flesh that they can get away with! People flock to local parks or open areas and begin to do previously unheard of things like cook their teas on the ground on portable BBQ’s or spend the afternoon sunbathing in the back garden with a long cold drink. Children run around chasing Frisbees, playing in streams, riding bikes and eating vast quantities of ice creams. Everyone suddenly becomes more alive and happy, even researchers seem to suggest that the sunshine and increased temperatures help to dispel peoples bad moods.

I’d like to suggest though that it isn’t the same for everyone: sun brings lots of pressure too, to look good, to do more active things and to have the garden looking nice. This just isn’t possible for some people.

I have M.E. and while winter does bring many challenges such as negotiating the icy roads with crutches, it is at least acceptable for people to finish work and go home, eat tea and then get snuggled up with a cuppa watching TV or reading a book. Suddenly once the sun comes out this is no longer OK, people instead should be mowing lawns, chasing children around the park or going on long walks admiring the scenery.. Now don’t for one minute think I wouldn’t love to do any of those things, there is nothing I would love more than spending the day hiking through the Peaks with my children, eating a picnic on top of a hill, dipping our feet in a stream and just generally surveying all that Mother Nature has to offer! Sadly for many people with any sort of physical difficulty this is not always an option, instead all our energy and strength goes on the mundane tasks that we all have to do and take for granted, such as getting out of bed, getting dressed, making and eating food and for some working or doing the school runs. Life becomes about weighing up these options and trying to balance out what energy you have for that day, everything has to become a choice between things rather than an as well as.

As examples of this I often have to weigh up if I go to bed early, stay in and rest all the day before and conserve all my energy will that be enough to allow me to make a picnic and sit on a rug on the grass while my children play the next day? If I really push it so I won’t be able to do anything the day after will I be able to squeeze a walk in there too?

I’m not writing this in order to garner sympathy but instead so people actually look around them and see if there are people who maybe aren’t able to enjoy the new sunshine as much as they would like to. Maybe you have an elderly relative or neighbour who is no longer able to do their garden or get out and about, or maybe you know someone who for whatever reason is not as physically capable as you? Maybe instead of spending one afternoon in your own garden or Local Park you could see if there is anything you can do to help them enjoy the sunshine too? It might be as simple as just helping them to get a chair, drink and a book outside or maybe you could spare an hour to help tidy their garden so they can enjoy the bright spring flowers too? Mostly it doesn’t have to be huge gestures or big expense to make a difference to someone’s day.