01.29.2009 1:25 pm
More on cold weather safety
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released some national numbers on cold weather deaths and injuries for 2006, the latest year it can count.
On record:according to AHRQ News and Numbers:
– 6,182 hospitalizations.
– 827 deaths in 2006.
– Men accounted for about 40 percent more hospitalizations for exposure to cold weather than women.
– People age 65 and older were the most likely to be hospitalized, about 7 times more likely than people age 18 to 44 and 3 times as likely as people age 45 to 64.
– The most common reasons for cold weather-related hospitalizations included hypothermia (which can cause loss of physical and mental abilities and, in extreme cases, death), frostbite, respiratory failure, and pneumonia.
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I've written exclusively about health since the inception of the Health & Fitness section. I'm an off-road biker, altitude hiker and was into adventure sports until a fall down a Colorado mountain turned my lower back into abstract art. But I'm coming back. 
