Outdoor cleaning in the winter

[one4reason]

Our team picks up litter at commercial properties. Each property we work, we're out there for up to an hour or two, then we head to the next site and go outside for a few hours again. With the winter approaching, how cold is too cold to call the day off? Next week will be -16°F, followed up by more low temps. This is our first winter where the job still needs done but I don't want to put the team at danger.

 

[jicurry1937]

@one4reason That depends on what the cold weather preparation and experience your team has. Btw, you can burn your lungs at -16°F without proper equipment.

For reference, when I was working a juvenile detention camp in a remote wilderness location during the winter, our insurance policy had a hard-line temperature boundary at 18°F being the lowest ground-to-air average allowed in order for us to maneuver detainees on foot, which was a required part of the program in order to participate. Anything lower than 18°F meant all field units were ordered to post for longer periods of time and the resupply units would redirect their action chain closer to the field units.

 

[jvilardo]

@jicurry1937 What's a juvenile detention camp?

 

[jicurry1937]

@jvilardo A horrible place that I am under OPSEC not to discuss other than to say I used to work in a juvenile detention camp in remote wilderness.

Essentially, it's an intensive therapeutic program for violent at-risk youth from all over the world that are forced into some form of physical detention or arrest and sent to an undisclosed location for transport to a designated team.

 

[stigg]

@one4reason -16f is like -26C if I did that right.

It's cold, but the way you speak (going from site to site) implies that you're in a city. I work in a mining camp (far away from towns/cities) where it gets colder than that so it's not impossible to work outside. You just need to be cautious.

Wear layers (and have spare socks), don't get wet (and if you do, take off the wet layers quickly) and take breaks in shelter. You clean commercial properties, so take breaks inside those stores.

Since you live somewhere where it gets this cold, I assume your employees have toques and whatnot? I find carrying a thermos and drinking from it keeps you warm.

 

[sodiumlight]

@one4reason what does OSHA say?