Snow shoveling — a laborious chore has become a routine activity for millions of Americans after a deadly winter storm covered swaths of the country with fresh snow over the last couple of days.
The chilling effects of the blizzard were felt by residents across Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, who have dealt with travel delays, power outages, widespread closures and bitter cold temperatures since the storm rolled through.
Though the storm largely subsided by Tuesday morning, another weather system forecast is expected to spread a wintry mess from Texas to the East Coast later this week, which means people likely won’t be able to put down the shovels anytime soon.
The household chore, while mundane to some, can actually be quite dangerous and even fatal to people with underlying health conditions. Nearly 200,000 adults were treated in emergency rooms for snow-shovel-related accidents from 1990 to 2006, and more than 1,600 deaths were reported in that time frame, according to the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
Snow shoveling is a vigorous activity, one that puts a lot of demand on the body’s heart and musculoskeletal system, Bethany Barone Gibbs, an epidemiology and biostatistics professor at West Virginia University and American Heart Association volunteer said in a December interview with USA TODAY.
People with heart conditions are more likely to have a cardiac event when shoveling snow, and people with musculoskeletal conditions or impaired balance are at higher risk for fall injuries, Gibbs said, and should get help from someone in good health to complete the chore.
But if snow shoveling must be done, shovel a little at a time, take breaks and dress appropriately.
Here’s what to know, including how old is too old to be shoveling snow and common symptoms of a cardiac event.
