By JAYSON JACOBY

Of the Baker City Herald

Fred McAdams’ finger will never let him forget the stealthy way can slither beneath the skin.

The finger reminds him whenever the temperature plunges.

And that downhill ride is one the mercury takes with frightening frequency where McAdams spends half of each month.

He lives in Baker City, but since 1981 he has worked at the oil fields near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. From there you have to drive a few hundred miles south just to get to the Arctic Circle.

On Jan. 28, 1989, the temperature at Prudhoe Bay plummeted to 54 below zero.

At the same time the wind blew at 36 mph.

The wind chill at that maliciously frigid moment?

135 below.

That’s the number based on the wind chill formula the National Weather Service used at that time, anyway.

The federal forecasting agency replaced the in 2001, and under the meteorologists’ new math that combination of wind and chill equates to 102 below.

Which is sort of like the difference between diving into a lake that’s just 50 feet deep instead of 75 you can drown either way if you’re not careful.

McAdams is careful.

andquot;Our company spends about $1,500 for each employee on down parkas and boots and other cold-weather gear,andquot; he said on Tuesday from his office in Prudhoe Bay. McAdams was scheduled to leave today for a two-week Christmas vacation back home in Baker City.

andquot;I’ve worked in the cold so long I don’t get as cold as most people,andquot; McAdams said.

Except for that finger.

andquot;It got frostbit once and it still gets cold before anything else,andquot; McAdams said.

At least he still has the finger.

In more severe cases frostbite can cause gangrene, leaving amputation as the only treatment.

Fingers and toes are the appendages most often lopped off due to frostbite.

McAdams said the tips of the ears, and any part of the face, also are susceptible to frostbite.

Frostbite usually attacks the extremities first because in cold weather the body diverts blood from those areas to the core to keep the body’s vital organs warm, said Dr. Jon Petterson, a physician at the Baker Clinic.

Weather in Baker County this December, though cooler than average, seems balmy compared with Prudhoe Bay’s typical temperatures.

McAdams said it has been as cold as 40 below zero (not counting windchill) during his current two-week work stint.

Baker hitting andquot;frostbite temperaturesandquot;

The lowest temperature at the Baker City Municipal Airport during that same period was 6 below zero, on the morning of Dec. 8.

Not as cold as McAdams is accustomed to, but cold enough to be dangerous.

andquot;These temperatures are frostbite temperatures,andquot; Petterson said. andquot;Below 20 degrees or so there’s a real risk.andquot;

Although frostbite is not common in Baker County, Petterson said he has treated several frostbitten patients during shifts at the emergency room at St. Elizabeth Health Services.

Frostbite usually appears first as white patches on the skin. The skin might tingle at first, but as frostbite progresses the white patches lose all sensation, as though they had been injected with an anesthetic.

The first, and obvious, step is to get to a warm place, Petterson said.

But properly treating frostbite is not so simple as, say, thawing a frozen pipe under your kitchen sink.

If water is available you should immerse the frostbitten area in warm, but not hot, water, Petterson said. The temptation to use the hottest water available is understandable, he said, but water warmer than about 108 degrees Fahrenheit can damage the tissue even more than the frostbite alone.

Besides, the frostbite victim won’t feel the pain even if the water is hot enough to scald the skin.

If the skin regains its normal pinkish red hue, and the numb sensation dissipates, the frostbite was probably not severe, and no further treatment, other than applying a sterile bandage, is needed, Petterson said.

But if the skin stays white, even after soaking in warm water for 20 to 30 minutes andquot;that’s when you need to see the doctor,andquot; he said.

According to the National Institutes of Health, you should not try to thaw frostbitten skin unless you’re certain it won’t be exposed to freezing temperatures again soon.

Re-freezing thawed extremities can increase the damage.

You also should avoid rubbing or massaging frostbitten skin, which can damage the underlying tissue. Using direct heat sources, such as a fire, heating pad or hair dryer, to thaw frostbitten skin can cause the same problem.

Although anyone can suffer from frostbite, people with certain pre-existing medical problems might suffer sooner, Petterson said.

One such condition is andquot;Raynaud’s phenomenon,andquot; which can causes blood vessels in the hands and feet to constrict, blocking the flow of warm blood.

Cold weather sometimes triggers a Raynaud’s episode, Petterson said.

Other factors that can contribute to frostbite include drinking alcohol or smoking, and diabetes, all of which can restrict blood flow to the extremities.

An all-over cold

A weather-related problem that often accompanies frostbite, but which can occur separately even when the temperature is in the 40s, is hypothermia.

It happens when the body’s core temperature drops below 95 degrees. Hypothermia can be fatal.

How convenient, then, that the tactics for preventing hypothermia and frostbite are essentially the same.

The main weapon against both is clothing.

And the key word, one which McAdams repeats a few times during a 10-minute conversation, is andquot;layering.andquot;

Here’s the bottom line: You’ll stay warmer if you wear multiple layers of well-insulated garments rather than donning a single, bulky coat.

The most important layers are the bottom (the one that touches your skin) and the top (the one that’s exposed to the chilly air).

The fabrics best-suited for the bottom layer are ones that absorb sweat and dry quickly polypropylene and polyester are two common ones.

Avoid cotton. It soaks up sweat well enough (that’s why they make bath towels out of the stuff), but it dries slowly and, when it’s damp, it’ll insulate you about as well as this newspaper you’re reading.

The top layer needs to repel wind and water. Several manmade materials will do both.

Good options for the in-between layers include goose down, wool and fleece.

To defeat frostbite, focus on those tender extremities: feet, fingers and face.

McAdams said that each winter a small number of workers at Prudhoe Bay suffer minor cases of frostbite, and almost invariably the affected body part is the tip of an ear or nose, nipped when the worker ventures outside, even briefly, without wearing a stocking cap and a face mask.

For fingers, he recommends mittens rather than gloves.

Gloves expose each finger to the frigid air, McAdams said, whereas a mitten keeps all the fingers cozily together.

The link between ice and itch

Although frostbite and hypothermia are among the better-known and most-feared of cold-weather maladies, Petterson said the ailment he sees much more often during winter is more annoying than it is dangerous: dry skin.

Many people develop an itchy rash during prolonged periods of cold, dry weather, Petterson said.

Slathering on lotion frequently to keep the skin moist can prevent such rashes, he said.

Petterson said he occasionally treats a patient for andquot;chilblainsandquot; which certainly sounds like an affliction of winter.

Chilblains can occur when cold temperatures cause blood vessels to constrict, then the skin rewarms so rapidly that blood leaks from the shrunken vessels into the surrounding tissue.

They’re most common on the feet, although they can develop on the hands or the face.

Petterson said most of the chilblain cases he has seen affected people who wore boots for long periods while outside in cold weather. Their feet would sweat, he said, and the moist skin was more susceptible to chilblains.

They usually begin as small patches of itchy, red skin. Later they turn dark blue, the itch switches to pain, and the chilblain may swell. Chilblains can lead to cracks in the skin that are prone to infection.

To stave off chilblains, Petterson recommends people who wear boots often, such as ranchers, take occasional breaks to warm their feet and change into dry socks.