Working in the Cold

The toes, fingers, ears and nose are at greatest risk because they do not have major muscles to produce heat. Mental alertness is also reduced.

Employers should:

What the law says

Some jurisdictions provide a range of acceptable temperatures (http://bit.ly/cold_legislation) for specific circumstances. Others use the Threshold Limit Values® for cold stress published by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) as occupational exposure limits or guidelines.

Where there are no maximum exposure limits for cold working environments, there are guidelines that can be used to conduct work/task assessments, create safe work plans, and monitor conditions.