As outdoor temperatures plummet, employers and employees alike can take steps to help prevent injuries and illnesses when workers have to brave the elements to get the job done.

If you work outside, it’s important to know about cold stress. Cold stress is a preventable danger that involves a person’s skin temperature – and eventually internal body temperature – dropping to levels at which the body cannot warm itself, according to OSHA. This can lead to serious injuries, including permanent tissue damage and death. Types of cold stress include trench foot, frostbite and hypothermia.

A spike in lost-time injuries and illnesses resulting from “environmental cold” suggests a lack of understanding of cold stress and how to avoid related injuries.

A thorough workplace safety and health plan should include steps to protect workers from cold-related hazards. This is particularly important for workers in the services, transportation, construction and agriculture industries.

Washington — Citing the increased circulation of airborne viruses when temperatures drop, “indoor air quality in the workplace during cold weather is especially critical,” OSHA says in a new alert.

Fall means cold and flu season is almost upon us, and store shelves are lined with a variety of products made to treat common symptoms. But those medications can be toxic when not used properly, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

“Workers – both indoors and outdoors – in services, transportation, agriculture, construction and other industries may be exposed to environmental cold stress that can lead to thermal discomfort, and in some cases even severe injuries, illnesses or death,” NIOSH warns.

Protecting workers from frigid outdoor conditions requires awareness, planning and training. We've got seven tips for workers and safety professionals.

In Episode 36, the S+H team dives into the February issue’s feature story on the hazards of working in cold weather. Additionally, Mike Kassman, director of OSHA and disaster response training at CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training, discusses ladder safety.

Working outdoors already involves many hazards. Add cold temperatures during the winter months, and the number of risks grows.

Miners who work in cold temperatures are at risk for cold stress, which may trigger hypothermia, frostbite, and other injuries and illnesses.

Arlington, VA — Keeping miners safe during cold weather is the focus of a new alert from the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Solely says it used its signature, patented cold-pressing process to transform dried green bananas into a traditional fusilli shape and texture. The dark-colored Organic Green Banana Fusilli Pasta cooks to an al-dente texture in just four minutes and is ready to be topped with a sauce or other ingredients.

The fungi-infused green juice contains a mega blend of mushrooms: Chaga, Reishi and Tremella combined with organic fruits and vegetables including, granny smith apple, cucumber, pineapple, kiwi, spinach, broccoli, parsley, sea moss, and pearl powder. 

The Hot or Cold Meal Kits further the brand’s commitment to delivering convenient, high-quality products that make mealtime easier for consumers, while also providing versatility.

Many foodborne illnesses occur because a link in the cold food chain was weak or broken, with temperature inconsistencies that allowed pathogens to begin growing.

Created for the on-the-go coffee enthusiast, the new line upholds Explorer’s commitment to quality, sustainability and ethical sourcing practices. 

With this carbon dioxide chiller installed at a dairy, not only does it cool the milk better, it also provides heat for washing equipment.

What’s not to like about improving sustainability and protecting the environment while saving energy and money—and best of all, no equipment or software expenditures are necessary.

Green initiatives have shown that raising cold-chain temperatures by 3°C from -18°C to -15°C can save the industry money, but how well can equipment in service support the move?

Henry Avocado Corp. has expanded its cold storage distribution center in Charlotte, N.C. through collaboration with design-build firm A M King.

Situated on 15 acres, the 178,000-sq.-ft. facility maintains 32-ft. clear heights, 29 loading docks, 236 parking spaces and 116,000 sq. ft. of freezer space.

Last year, two people were attacked by sharks on Cape Cod, and one died. The result has been a  media frenzy that really you have to see to believe.

Find more Outside/In at outsideinradio.org

Programmers have banned the song after fielding listener complaints that the song is offensive, only to face a backlash against that decision.

Late night comedy talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was reduced to tears Wednesday as he scolded the voters who elected President-elect Donald Trump to a second term.

The current Sinophobia in the 2nd Cold War between the U. S. and China has contributed to the 2nd strategic mistake that the U. S. is making by allying with India against China (without examining thoroughly its long-term consequences) -- just as the U. S. made the 1st strategic mistake by aligning with China against the U. S. S.R. in the 1st Cold War (also without examining thoroughly its long-term consequences). In global geopolitics, a friend of today can become an enemy of tomorrow. Therefore, is it too late for the U. S. to correct this 2nd strategic mistake by handling India with great care, due to the latter's hegemonic ambition as a new world power, which will then lead to the coming of what I call "Indophobia” in the next decade(s)? 1. Introduction: Historical Background In my 1999 book titled "The Future of Human Civilization” (published in 1999), I had already untimely predicted the emergence of China as the dominant global power on Earth in the following decades, as it was based on the untimely prediction made in my 1995 doctoral dissertation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). In my 2007 book titled "Beyond the World of Titans, and the Remaking of World Order” (published in 2007), I had already untimely predicted the emergence of China and India as the two "hyper-empires” in the top (1st) tier of global politics, with the U. S. and the EU falling to the 2nd tier (as the two "meso-empires”).

An ostrich farm in the village of Pazhga in the Komi Republic, became famous in Russia due to its runaway Australian emu named Vasya (a short for Vasily). On the night of October 26, the bird escaped from its enclosure and ran into the  forest. Dozens of volunteers and hunters were trying to bring Vasya back home for five days. The news of his escape into the wild made national headlines.  During these days, the emu was running about the forest avoiding all traps and tricks that the volunteers could come up with. The bird would walk away from nets, and it was impossible to attract him with food - the emu can do away without food for up to 40 days.

[Science] :
Tuesday is set to see cold weather as temperatures drop sharply with strong, cold winds blowing from Monday.  The Korea Meteorological Administration forecast that morning lows will stand between two and eleven degrees Celsius on Tuesday, down seven to 13 degrees from Monday.  Afternoon highs will be ...

[more...]

You hop inside your car to escape the brutal winter winds and fumble with your frigid keys, only to find that your car won't start when you turn the ignition. What's going on? It's probably one of three problems.

; Credit: /Joy Ho for NPR

Perhaps the only respite pandemic closures brought to my family — which includes two kids under age 6 — was freedom from the constant misery of dripping noses, sneezes and coughs. And statistics suggest we weren't the only ones who had fewer colds last year: With daycares and in-person schools closed and widespread use of masks and hand sanitizer in most communities, cases of many seasonal respiratory infections went down, and flu cases dropped off a cliff.

That reprieve might be ending. Social mixing has been starting up again in much of the U.S. and so have cases of garden-variety sniffles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just warned physicians that RSV, a unpleasant respiratory virus, is surging right now in southern states. And it's not just happening in the U.S. — researchers in the U.K. and Hong Kong found that rhinovirus outbreaks spiked there, too, when COVID-19 lockdowns ended.

My family is at the vanguard of this trend. Right after Washington D.C. lifted its mask mandate a few weeks ago, both my kids got runny noses and coughs, and as soon as they tested negative for COVID-19, my pandemic fears were replaced by a familiar dread. I had visions of sleepless, cough-filled nights, dirty tissues everywhere, and — in short order — my own miserable cold.

"If someone in your house is sick, you're not only breathing in their sick air, you're touching those contaminated surfaces. You're having closer contact, you're having longer exposures," says Seema Lakdawala, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who studies how influenza viruses transmit between people. It can start to feel inevitable that the whole family will get sick.

Take heart, my fellow parents-of-adorable-little-germ-machines! Lakdawala says many strategies we all picked up to fight COVID-19 can also stop the spread of many routine respiratory viruses. In fact, they may be even more effective against run-of-the-mill germs, since, unlike the viruses behind most colds, SARS-CoV2 was new to the human immune system.

Those strategies start with everyone keeping their children home from school, camp and playdates when they're sick and keeping up with any and all vaccinations against childhood illnesses. Beyond that, specialists in infectious disease transmission I consulted offer five more tips for keeping my family and yours healthier this summer.

Tip #1: Hang on to those masks

In pre-pandemic times, it might have seemed like a weird move to put on a mask during storytime with your drippy-nosed kid, but Dr. Tina Tan says that's her top tip. She's a professor of pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and a pediatric infectious disease physician at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago.

When it comes to influenza, a rhinovirus, or any of the other respiratory bugs constantly circulating, "once these viruses touch your mucous membranes, whether it's your eyes, your nose or your mouth, you do have a chance of contracting it," says Tan. Masks help stop infectious particles and virus-filled droplets from getting into your body.

"You don't need a N95," Tan says. A light-weight surgical mask or homemade cloth mask can work as long as it has two or more layers. The mask-wearing also doesn't have to be constant. "If you're going to be face to face with them — they're sitting in your lap, you're reading to them, you're feeding them, etc. — then I would say wear a mask," Tan advises.

Even better, if it's not too uncomfortable for your sick child, have them wear a mask, Lakdawala says. "If your kids are old enough to wear a mask, that would probably be the best strategy, because then you're reducing the amount of virus-laden aerosols in the environment."

How long should you stay masked-up?

For most respiratory viruses, "the infectious period is probably similar to that of COVID," says Dr. Jennifer Shu, a pediatrician in Atlanta and medical editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics' site HealthyChildren.org. It might technically start a few days before symptoms begin and last for up to two weeks, but your sniffly kids are likely most contagious during those first runny-nosed days Shu says. "You could have kids over [age] 2 wear a mask for the first three or four days of symptoms," she suggests.

And if you can't bring yourself to wear a mask or put one on your child inside your own home to fight a cold, don't worry. Lakdawala has a few more ideas.

Tip #2: Air it out, space it out

When Lakdawala's 5- and 8-year-old kids get sick, "I open the windows, I turn on the fans, I get a lot more air circulation going on in the house," she says — that is, weather and allergies permitting, of course.

"A lot of these viruses tend to circulate more during the colder weather, so where you live is going to determine how much you can open your windows," Tan points out. But certainly, she says, "the better the ventilation, the less likely the viruses are going to get transmitted from one person to another."

What about buying HEPA filter air purifiers, or changing the filter in your heating and air conditioning system? "I would not suggest going out to purchase extra HEPA filters just for this purpose," says Dr. Ibukun Kalu, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Duke University. For hospitals that are treating very contagious and serious pathogens like tuberculosis or SARS-CoV2, those upgrades may be important, she says. "But for all of the other routine viruses, it's routine ventilation."

Kalu says you might also want to think strategically about creating some social distance — when it's possible — like strategically having the parent who tends not to get as sick provide the one-on-one care for the sick kid.

Obviously, you can't isolate a sick child in a room by themselves until they recover, but Lakdawala says not getting too close or for too long can help. When her kids are sick, "I do try to just not snuggle them — keep them a little bit at a distance."

Tip #3: Don't try to be a HAZMAT team

There's good news on the house-cleaning front. "Most of these viruses don't live on surfaces for very long periods of time," says Tan.

The research on exactly how long cold-causing rhinoviruses can survive on surfaces — and how likely they are to remain infectious — isn't definitive. As Dr. Donald Goldmann of Boston Children's Hospital poetically put it in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal a couple decades ago, "Despite many years of study, from the plains of Salisbury, to the hills of Virginia, to the collegiate environment of Madison, WI, the precise routes rhinovirus takes to inflict the misery of the common cold on a susceptible population remain controversial." That's still true today, doctors say.

There's some evidence that contaminated surfaces are not very important in the spread of colds. In one little study from the 1980s, a dozen healthy men played poker with cards and chips that "were literally gummy" from the secretions of eight other men who had been infected with a rhinovirus as part of the study. Even after 12 hours of poker, none of the healthy volunteers caught colds.

Shu's take home advice? Be methodical in your cleaning of often-touched surfaces (kitchen table, countertops and the like) with soap and water when everybody's healthy, and maybe add bleach wipes or other disinfectant when someone in your household has a cold. But don't panic.

Tan agrees. "Wipe down frequently-touched surfaces multiple times a day," she says. "But you don't have to go crazy and, like, scour everything down with bleach."

You also don't need to do a lot of extra laundry in hopes of eliminating germs on clothes, towels, dishtowels and the like — that can be exhausting and futile. Instead, just try to encourage kids who are sick to use their own towel — and do what you can to give towels a chance to dry out between uses. "Having some common sense and doing laundry every few days — washing your towels every few days and washing your sheets every couple of weeks — is probably good enough," Shu says. "You don't need to go overboard for run-of-the-mill viruses."

Don't fret that there are germs everywhere and you can't touch anything, says Lakdawala. "If I touch something, that -- in itself — is not infecting me," she notes. Instead, it's getting a certain amount of virus on our hands and then touching our own nose, eyes or mouth that can infect us. "If I just go wash my hands, that risk is gone," Lakdawala says.

You can also skip wearing gloves around the house. "People think that they are safe when they're wearing the gloves — and then they touch their face with their gloves [on]" and infect themselves, she says.

Instead, just make it a habit to wash your hands frequently.

Tip #4: Seriously, just wash your hands

"The same handwashing guidelines for COVID also apply for common respiratory illnesses," Shu says. That is: regular soap with warm water, lathered for about 20 seconds.

"The reason why 20 seconds is recommended is because some studies show that washing your hands shorter than that doesn't really get rid of germs." She warns that there hasn't been a whole lot of research on this, and 20 seconds is not a magic number. "But it is thought that anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds is probably good enough to get rid of most of the germs," she says. (Note: No need to drive your family crazy singing the birthday song twice — y'all have options.)

"Wash your hands before you eat, after you eat, after you go to the bathroom ... if you're changing your child's diaper, et cetera.," says Tan. "And if you're going to use hand sanitizer, it has to be at least 60% alcohol."

"Your hands are probably the most important source of transmission outside of someone really coughing or sneezing in your face," Kalu adds.

Tip #5: Don't give up, but do keep perspective

So, what if your beloved child does cough or sneeze in your face? Should you then forget all this stuff and just give in to the inevitable?

Don't give up, says Lakdawala. "Just because you got one large exposure in your mouth and in close range, it doesn't mean that that was sufficient to initiate an infection," she says. Whether you get sick from that germy onslaught is going to depend on a lot of things — the particular virus, whether the sneeze landed in your mouth or nose, whether you've been exposed to some version of that virus before and more.

One tiny positive side effect of the coronavirus pandemic for Lakdawala has been a broader public understanding of "dose-response" in viral transmission. "Just because somebody breathed on you once doesn't necessarily mean that that's what's going to get you infected," she says.

Consider practicing the swiss cheese model of transmission control, Shu says. "Every layer of protection helps — if you find that wearing a face shield is too much, but you do everything else, you're still going to limit your exposure," she says. Just do what works for you and your family.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A series of secret tests conducted by the U.S. Army in the 1950s and 1960s did not expose residents of the United States and Canada to chemical levels considered harmful, according to a new report from a committee of the National Research Council.

New technologies to help expand increased refrigerated and frozen snack and bakery product warehousing and distribution.

According to the April 2021 "Cold Chain Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report" from Grand View Research, the global cold chain market size was valued at $210.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.8 percent from 2021 to 2028.

The cold chain is essential for snack and bakery companies that produce perishable products, as the temperature of these products must be monitored throughout the distribution process.

Cold-chain management—an essential aspect of many snack and bakery operations today—has entered a brave new world characterized by sophisticated temperature monitoring and tracking technology connected by the Internet of Things (IoT).

The IDS Ultra qualifies for federal tax credits and state rebates as an Energy Star V6.1 Cold Climate-certified product.  

Cold stress may not be as well-known as heat stress, but when the temperature drops, it can pose a significant danger.

It’s imperative that those working with industrial freezers are able to recognize, treat, and most important prevent cold stress and its potential health impacts.

CAS Dataloggers announced the availability of the V5C cold chain data logger manufactured by Frigga.

STōK Cold Brew declared the cappuccino as the new coffee beverage of summer with the launch of its STōK Cold Brew Cappuccino.  

Explorer Cold Brew introduced its newest product line of ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cold brew beverages. 

Chameleon Organic Coffee announced the expansion of its Girl Scout Cookie Inspired Cold-Brew Latte lineup with the launch of Girl Scout S’mores.

Gopuff and Pure Green announced the launch of Gopuff x Pure Green Refreshers, a new line of flavor-forward, cold-pressed juice beverages made with functional ingredients. Co-developed by Gopuff and Pure Green, the Refreshers are now available for delivery nationwide, exclusively on Gopuff.

Free Samples, Small Pours, and Exciting Deals Await!

Enjoy great tasting cold brew coffee, tea, and lemonade with delicious BBQ

Rooter King Plumbing stands out with its commitment to fast response times, expert repairs, and exceptional customer service.

Rapid Response for inclement winter weather

Lubker's acquisition expands his ecommerce portfolio into the consumables and subscription space, bringing fresh ideas and exciting plans for growth to the already successful Woah Cold Brew brand.

New Stand-Alone Entity Includes Expansion of ISTA Testing Lab Capabilities

Esteemed educator, author, and political commentator, Barbara Taber, Ed.D., unveils the latest episode of her 'Take It Or Leave It' web series at a time when the country needs it most.