With cold weather here to stay, a local health unit's urging northerners to help prevent frostbite and hypothermia.
Warning hypothermia and frostbite can happen at a wide range of temperatures - but especially when it's colder - Public Health Sudbury and Districts is encouraging precautions, including dressing in layers with a wind resistant outer layer, covering extremities, and staying active but dry, as well as planning according to the weather forecast, limiting the amount of time spent in the cold, and seeking shelter from the wind.
It also recommends monitoring those who may be more vulnerable due to age, living conditions, health conditions, reduced mobility, or isolation, including the unhoused, reminding frostbite is skin that has actually frozen - usually starting with extremities like fingers, toes, ears, nose, and cheeks - while hypothermia's a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body's exposed to cold for a long time and loses more heat than it can generate.