When another entity holds a transparent block in their hand, you can see signs, chests and ender chests right through it without the ice giving it a small blur. This doesn't appear to be so for the player holding the block. From what I've seen it works with ice, glass, stained glass (all colors).

While experimenting with this, I discovered that when it's a transparent item (glass panes, stained glass panes), the chests and signs won't even load at all!