Cooling of Hands and Fingers Wetted by Snow
Abstract
While working with bare hands in winter, hands and fingers get often contact with loose snow. The snow then attaches to the skin and melts quickly, which causes rapid cooling. However, the effect of snow cooling is not quantified. In this study the effect of ca. 2s immersion of hand into pulverized snow on subsequent hand and finger temperatures at - 10 deg C and 2.0 m/s wind were studied. Non-immersed hand was used as a reference. After the snow immersion, the immersed and non-immersed hands were exposed to wind for 3 min. In the non-immersed hand, the skin temperatures in fingers decreased in 3 min to 12.4 - 15.2 deg C and in hand to 19.4 - 22.7 deg C. In the immersed hand, finger temperatures were 6.1 - 8.4 deg C lower than in the non-immersed hand, measured 30 s after the immersion. At the end of the 3 min cold exposure, the temperatures in the different sites of the immersed hand were still 2.9 - 7.0 deg C lower than without immersion. The results emphasise the marked cooling effect of single snow immersion on hand and especially on finger temperatures. Snow immersion markedly increases the risk of frostbite.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADP012429
Entities
People
- Art Peitso
- Hannu Rintamaeki
- Juha Oksa
- Sirkka Rissanen
- Tero Maekinen