Safety Tip from the Bigfork Schools Safety Committee

Hypothermia -- The Silent Killer

Three factors are major causal factors in hypothermia: cold, water, and wind.

1) In a cold environment, the body must work harder to regulate heat; contact with cold air, water, snow, ground or clothing will cause heat losses due to conduction.

2) If a person is submersed in water, heat will be lost due to conduction and convection. At a water temperature of 32 degrees death occurs in 15 minutes; at 70 degrees survival for as long as 48 hours has been observed. Loss of heat by evaporation is a major contributor also. Wet skin or clothing will cool of the body quickly, especially if it is windy and/or cold.

3) Wind will cause heat loss due to convection, and will accelerate heat loss due to evaporation.

4) Hypothermia occurs much more quickly in the elderly and chronically ill.
Hypothermia is insidious. As the body's core temperature drops, more and more body systems suffer from the effects of cold. The presence and severity of hypothermia can be assessed by the signs and symptoms below. A patient is hypothermic at any temperature below 98.6 degrees fahrenheit (rectal). 98-94 degrees is mild hypothermia; 94-84 degrees is moderate hypothermia, and below 84 degrees is severe hypothermia.

STAGES OF YPOTHERMIA:

98 - 95 degrees - Sensation of chilliness, skin numbness; minor impairment in muscular performance, especially in use of hands; shivering begins.

95 - 93 degrees - More obvious muscle in coordination and weakness; slow stumbling pace; mild confusion and apathy. Skin pale and cold to touch.

93 - 90 degrees - Gross muscular in coordination with frequent stumbling and falling and inability to use hands; mental sluggishness with slow thought and speech; retrograde amnesia.

90 - 86 degrees - Cessation of shivering; severe muscular in coordination with stiffness and inability to walk or stand; incoherence, confusion, irrationality.

86 - 82 degrees - Severe muscular rigidity; patient barely arousable; dilatation of pupils; in apparent heartbeat and pulse. Skin ice cold.

82- 78 degrees and below - Unconsciousness; death due to cessation of heart action.

Safety Meeting November 18, 2009

This was our first meeting for the new school year. All but one of the previous committee members are back, Cory Pierce joined us representing the Elementary.

Agenda:
1. Building Inspections
2. Playgrounds
3. Parking Lot
4. Winter safety
5. Others

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Building Inspections: Items to check
1. TV stands and TV wall holders that look unsafe
2. Overloaded bookshelves where the shelves are sagging
3. Power strips plugged into power strips
4. The use of extension cords
5. Broken switch and outlet covers
6. Tops of heaters covered with flammable material.

Playgrounds
1. Broken equipment
2. Ground cover under equipment

Parking Lots
1. The movement of traffic
2. Elementary kids crossing the High School parking lot

Winter Safety
1. Will be using sand again this year
2. Slips and falls
3. The use of proper foot ware

Others
1. Students and staff using chairs and other items to stand on instead of using a stepladder
2. Lifting heavy items properly
3. Make sure the bottles of cleaning chemicals in classrooms are marked as to what chemical is in them

The first order of business for the new year is to do a building inspection looking for unsafe conditions. Over the years, many safety issues have been solved which makes the school a safer place for students and staff.

Each committee member assigned an area of a building. When the inspections are completed, a report of the findings is given to the Superintended, Building Principals, and Maintenance Department, and then a plan is put in place on how to make the correction.