Snow Shoveling: Will It Literally Kill You?

Scott Lear

Security,

Yes!

Winter’s just over a month old and already from coast to coast, major storms have hit. While the snow can provide great opportunities for different outdoor activities such as skiing, snowshoeing, skating and tobogganing, for many people, it means getting a shovel out to clear the sidewalk or dig out the car.

As an exercise and health researcher, I can confirm that snow shovelling is an excellent physical activity. It works both your upper and lower body, and these sorts of activities done regularly can reduce your risk for heart disease and premature death. In lab testing, snow shovelling was equivalent to vigorous physical activity, like running on a treadmill. For many people, this would be at, or close to, their maximal fitness capacity.

Every winter, hospital admissions of people experiencing chest pain or heart attacks increase after snowfalls. One Canadian study reported a 34 per cent increased risk for death in men due to heart attack on days following 20 cm or more of snow.

Over a two-year period, seven per cent of 500 acute heart events during the winter were attributed to snow shovelling. In the United States, approximately 770 people report to the emergency department annually for heart-related events as a result of shovelling snow, of which nearly 100 result in deaths.

With these findings, one would think that we should avoid snow shovelling at all costs. But with a few exceptions, it’s no different from any other vigorous physical activity.

When one is active, the working muscles demand more oxygen causing the heart to beat faster and stronger. This stress on the heart results in a small increase in risk of having a heart attack or sudden cardiac arrest. However, this risk is extremely small; about one death in 36.5 million hours of exercise compared to one in 59.4 million hours of sitting. To put this into perspective, if you live to 80 years, that’s only 700,000 hours.

Snow shovelling: A perfect storm for the heart