Assessment of cold stress in outdoor work

The evaluation of cold stress in working life was done in 13, mainly outdoor, occupations and 143 workers using local temperatures, body cooling and thermal sensations. The subjects in the study were young, healthy men and they wore the type of winter clothing generally used in those ambient temperatures (+6...-29 degrees C), for in a work load of from 112 to 480 W. Local temperatures on finger skin indicated that manual dexterity was often reduced in outdoor work. A risk of frostbite was frequently found on the cheek and the wind chill index predicted the risk quite well. Body cooling was often temporarily too high when measured by heat debt and mean skin temperature. Thermal sensations were cool or cold occasionally in 28% of the workers interviewed. The insulation of clothing worn was often lower than the IREQmin-value recommends. The results showed that in outdoor work in winter time cold stress frequently reduced (70%) working ability at least for a short period. Mean skin temperature seems to be, in practice, a useful indicator for body cooling and the IREQmin-value was suitable, especially in light work, to indicate body cooling. A very sensitive factor for the expression of cold stress was finger temperature, at least as an indicator of finger dexterity. Due to the adverse health effects found the cold stress should also be evaluated more systematically in occupational health and safety with health examinations, with protective clothing and technical preventive means.