Winter Health and Safety for Protestors

For a broader list of winterization topics, see Winterization and Fire Safety.

Fire Safety - Please be aware that much of Tent City is easily susceptible to fire damage!

• Never smoke cigarettes inside the tents. Please smoke in designated areas to respect non-smokers.
• Never burn candles, camp-stoves, etc. inside the tents.

Health

• Stay dry and away from wind
• Keep moving to keep circulation going, which will keep you warm and help prevent frostbite. Even rocking back and forth and stretching your arms and back will help.

Health & Safety

Frostbite

• If part of your body starts to tingle, ache or feel numb, get inside immediately. Don't fuck with frostbite. Frostbite hates your nose, it loathes your ears, it despises your fingers and it really, truly hates your feet. Frostbite loves caffeine and alcohol because they make it easier for Old Frosty to get under your skin.

• Staying hydrated will help reduce your risk of frostbite: Every day, drink half your weight as ounces of fluid that has no caffeine or alcohol (diuretics). If you weigh 150 pounds, that means 75 oz of fluid - without caffeine or alcohol - per day.
• Go pee often. Don't waste energy keeping a bladder full of urine warm. Going pee may warm you up just a bit, but more importantly you will be able to stay warm for a longer period of time. This does not mean you should avoid liquids. Stay hydrated but don't hold it.

Hypothermia

Severe shivering, mental confusion, and difficulty speaking mean trouble. If you are shivering and no amount of hot food and drink will make it stop, go inside. If you observe someone stop shivering without having down anything to warm up, get them help now.

Dehydration, Sunburn, and Windburn

Dehydration, sunburn and windburn will happen in the winter too. Those alpine skiers on TV have sunscreen paste on their noses for a reason. Cold air is dry air and if you're marching, it is sucking perspiration off you face before you know it. That steam on your breath is water escaping from your body. Keep a bottle or canteen of warm water on a strap or lanyard, close to your body. Tape your extra camera batteries to the strap. Use chapstick or vaseline to protect your lips.

Trench Foot

Symptoms may include tingling, itching sensation, pain, swelling, cold and blotchy skin, numbness, and a prickly or heavy feeling in the foot. You foot may be red, dry, and painful after it becomes warm and may develop blisters. Trench foot leads to the death of the skin and other tissues in your feet and is caused by poor circulation under wet conditions. It happens when your feet are wet and cold. If your feet are wet, it can occur at temperatures as high as 60F! Do not leave wet socks on - change to dry socks as soon as you can. Do not wear socks that are tight, as the additional constriction from the sock will make things worse. Dry off and massage your feet every 2 hours if you cannot keep them warm with socks and shoes.

Tips for Staying Warm

How to Dress

• Stay dry. Wear water resistant outer layers and inner layers that wick sweat away from you. If you get wet, remove your wet clothing as soon as possible and get dry clothes on. If you are sweating, remove layers or open your outermost one to regulate your temperature and let the sweat evaporate so your inner layers don't get soaked.
  • If you go inside to warm up and take off your shoes or boots, fill them with crumpled newspaper to wick up a lot of the perspiration. You can do the same with damp socks.
  • Opening up the hands of a sweaty pair of mittens or gloves with a toilet paper tube will help dry them quicker.
• Keep your head, neck and ears covered.
  • A wool or fleece hat with ear flaps is best. A stocking cap is ok, but if it gets really cold or windy, you'll need a hood to cover it or a scarf to protect your neck. There are MAJOR blood vessels in your neck and head - if they get cold, you will be cold.
  • Ears are very vulnerable to frostbite.
  • When it's really cold, you'll also need a ski mask and/or a scarf to cover your face. If your coat has a hood or collar that covers your neck, your good to go. Otherwise, wrap up with a scarf or pashmina.
• Mittens. Not gloves, mittens, with a windproof outer shell or leather choppers. Mittens allow your fingers to share heat. If you need your fingers for dexterity, wear a thin pair of gloves with big mittens over them.
• Layers
  • Washable briefs and t-shirt with insulated long underwear (polypropylene, wool, or silk) and
  • Wool boot socks on the inside and a
  • warm coat on the outside. If your coat has no hood, wear a hoodie or anorak under it to cover your neck and shield the sides of your face.
  • Under your coat, wear wool pants, sweatpants or long wool skirt (over warm leggings or pants) below and a long-sleeved sweater, sweatshirt or fleece above. Add a flannel shirt with pockets to hold your cell phone or camera.
• If you want to stay really warm, ski pants, or a snowmobile suit are better. Insulated coveralls designed for farmers and construction workers are best of all. Even basic rainpants over your other pants will help keep you dry and prevent the wind from chilling you.
• Comfortable footware that keeps your feet dry.
  • Rubber boots or shoepacs.
  • Get them larger than your usual size so you can wear multiple pairs of socks.
• Keep a wad of kleenex, paper towels or paper napkins handy. Cold makes your eyes water and your nose run. When you get inside your sleeves and mittens will thank you for using a hanky instead

How to Behave

• Drink plenty of fluids that do not contain caffeine or alcohol
• Go pee when you need to so your body won't waste energy keeping your full bladder warm.
• Don't stand on or walk in on snow for long periods. Concrete isn't much better, but snow will surround your feet and suck the heat out very quickly. It can also melt from your body heat, seep into your shoes, get the bottom of your pant legs wet.
• Fuel: Hot liquids can warm you up quickly, but real food will keep your furnace going. In cold weather, your resting body burns calories just to stay warm. At the end of the day, you'll be exhausted. Your metabolism has been humming just to keep your temperature at 98.6. When you warm up, every cell in your body just wants to crash.
  • Eat fatty foods: beans, butter, soy or olive oil, etc.
  • Eat multiple meals a day, and always eat before going to bed.
  • Eat more than you normally do; your body needs extra energy to keep you warm.
• Do not stand, sit, or lie directly on concrete; it sucks the warmth from you. Use foam or thick cardboard as a barrier. A pile of newspaper will do in a pinch.
• When the wind chill advisory is vicious, get out of it. Shelter in a tent or building.

Protecting Other Things from Cold

• Electronics:
  • Plastic parts on keyboards get brittle and need to be handled gently. If you are outside in cold weather and aren't close to an electrical outlet, your laptop battery is going to croak pretty quickly.
  • Cold kills batteries.
  • Keep your cell phone, camera, and other small electronics close to your body - that means in your sleeping bag with you at night. Ditto for extra batteries.
• Cold freezes the ink in pens and markers. Bring a pencil and use fat kindergarten crayons or china markers to whip up signs in the great white north.

References

1. Credit for a majority of these guidelines is due to Daily Kos user ruleoflaw, and came from Cold weather tips for protesters. Information in many of the comments was also incorporated.~