A winter morning in the city

RELATED LINKS: City launches Winter Safety campaign The City's emergency management services have launched a three-month campaign to teach residents of informal settlements about the dangers of fire. Read more The colour of safety The latest leg of the City's Winter Safety Campaign invites children to tackle the issue of fire safety through colouring in. Read more EMS drives home fire safety message Reinforcing the City's Winter Safety Campaign's, the Emergency Management Services is encouraging parents to teach their children about fires. Read more About Emergency Management Services EMS operates a disaster management centre; helps communities and the City to prevent disasters or minimise the impact of disasters; enforces by-laws and codes and responds to medical, fire and rescue incidents. Read more

Hypothermia alert For many, winter means much more than just keeping the cold away. Hypothermia is a real threat – and the City is making sure residents know what to do to prevent it. July 12, 2006 By Thabang Mokoka AS winter temperatures continue to drop, the City of Johannesburg is warning people of the dangers of hypothermia. This message is part of the Winter Safety Campaign that has been running since Wednesday, 31 May informing residents of the dangers of extreme cold and of fires. This is part of the City's Qaphela campaign. Qaphela means "be careful, pasop, ingozi". Hypothermia is when the body temperature drops from its normal rate of around 37 degrees. Mild hypothermia is a drop to between 32 and 30 degrees, while severe hypothermia sees the body temperature go below 30 degrees. Hypothermia can be fatal when the body temperature drops below 27 degrees and the very young or very old are the most vulnerable. Symptoms to look out for are shivering, stiff limbs, low blood pressure, a slow pulse and fluctuating levels of consciousness. "This winter is colder than last year and we are seeing quite a few more cases," says spokesperson for Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS), Malcolm Midgley. People are being encouraged to keep warm and wear as much clothing as possible. "We are also advising people to pack cardboard and newspapers in their clothes and shoes to keep the heat in. Even a plastic bag can be wrapped around you and used as a kind of a windbreak." Officials from the City's emergency services have been knocking on doors across Johannesburg advising residents of what action to take against cold weather. Most body heat is lost through the "core" of the body: the head, chest, armpit and groin, where the blood flows closer to the skin, according to an emergency medicine specialist, Dr Charl van Loggerenberg. Wearing a hat could cut down on the loss of body heat by about 20 percent, Van Loggerenberg said, adding that wearing damp or wet clothes could also cause heat loss. The quickest way to help people with heat loss is to immerse the limbs – not the whole body – into warm water. "This helps get the blood flowing through the anastomoses in the hands and feet – vessels which bypass the capillaries and have a very high blood flow – directly to the body's core," according to an EMS press release. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za