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I 1 ' COLD STRESS The use of especially impervious clothing, such as TyvelJ11 suits, entraps perspiration from the body and makes the worker more susceptible to cold stress Moisture on the skin can conduct heat ' away from the body hundreds of times faster than when the skin is dry Persons working outdoors in temperatures at or below freezing may become frostbitten Extreme cold for a short time may cause severe injury to exposed body surfaces, or result in profound generalized cooling, thereby causing death Areas of the body that have a high surface area-to- volume ratio, such as fingers, toes, and ears, are the most susceptible ' The temperature of the hands and feet can drop as much as 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit (F°) ' below normal body temperature without lasting harm A relatively small temperature drop in the body core (about 2 5 degrees F) produces shivering As the body core temperature continues to drop, ' the brain becomes less efficient, and the victim becomes confused and disoriented The body's sense of cold is a relative factor The thermometer may read above 40 degrees Fahrenheit (`F) and the possibility of hypothermia might seem remote, but many cases of exposure ' have occurred in temperatures well above freezing Two factors influence the development of a cold injury ambient temperature and the velocity of ' the wind Windchill is used to describe the chilling effect of moving air in combination with low temperature For instance, 10° F with a wind of 15 miles per hour (mph) is equivalent in chilling ' effect to still air at -18° F As a general rule, the greatest incremental increase in wind chill occurs when a wind of 5 mph increases to 10 mph In addition, water conducts heat 240 times faster than ' air Thus, the body cools suddenly when impervious chemical-protective equipment is removed if the clothing underneath is perspiration soaked 1 Frostbite is the generic term used to describe local injury resulting from cold There are several ' degrees of damages Frostbite of the extremities can be categorized into ' • First nip or incipient frostbite characterized by suddenly blanching or whitening of skin, L - 1