Among those subject to the greatest workplace risks in the United States are those employed in the food service industry—a sector that, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), employs some 11.6 million people.
Among those risks:

• Carcinogenic: Second-hand smoke; car exhaust from fast-food drive-throughs.
• Physical: Slips, trips, and falls; burns; cuts; strains and sprains from carrying and lifting; complications arising from prolonged standing; accidents involving kitchen and food-preparation equipment.
• Electrical and chemical: Electrical shock; chemical burns or inhalation.
• Biological: Contact with foods or other biological agents.
• Psychosocial stress: Workplace violence; employee drug use.

Second-hand smoke is a huge risk for food service workers. A study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that even as recently as 2004, food service employees remained the least protected of all workers from second-hand smoke exposure at their workplace.

Less than half of the nation’s food service workers reported having a smoke-free place of employment, compared to over 75 percent of all white collar workers, including 90 percent of teachers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke at work have a 25 to 30 percent higher risk of heart disease and a 20 to 30 percent higher risk of lung cancer than nonsmokers who are not exposed to secondhand smoke at work.

Given that reality, during the 1990s and early 2000s, most states passed laws banning smoking in most indoor work environments. Yet, as of 2004, some 39 states continued to exempt bars and restaurants from these laws, reports the American Lung Association, leaving food service workers exposed to second-hand smoke and associated risks.

Other sobering statistics:

• The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) states that food service workers have a 50 percent greater risk than the general public of dying from lung cancer, due in part to their continuous exposure to second-hand smoke at work.
• The same article reported that people who work in restaurants are exposed to one and a half to two times as much second-hand smoke as people who work in office settings where smoking is allowed. People who work in bars are exposed to four to six times as much second-hand smoke.
• Another article, in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, states that although over three-fourths of white-collar workers are covered by smoke-free policies, less than half of food service workers are provided these protections.
• Research funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that the duration of exposure to second-hand smoke in a single work shift was significantly associated with the level of total urinary NNK (a tobacco-specific lung carcinogen), nicotine, and cotinine. Each hour of exposure was associated with about a 6 percent increase in NNK, a 33 percent increase in the level of nicotine, and a 12 percent increase in cotinine.

In addition to the high risks to which food service workers are subject from second-hand smoke, a variety of other risk factors—many, if not most, of which could be dramatically reduced through better regulation and monitoring—await these workers each day on the job.

Physical, electrical, and chemical risks, of course, are not unique to food service workers but are an ever-present concern in many occupations. Physical risks already noted for food service workers include accidents, slips and falls, cuts, burns, and sprains. Electrical shock can result from frayed wiring and poorly maintained machinery. Chemicals used in food processing and preservation, cooking, cleaning, and storage or packaging also contribute to workplace risk.

A major risk factor more closely associated with food service centers are biological risks associated with food handling and contact with biological agents. It is vital that food service workers follow  good practices, such as frequent hand-washing and avoiding working when sick.

Food handling includes taking measures to avoid contamination in the handling or eating of raw or undercooked foods—including possibly contaminated raw shellfish. Any prepared food that has not been refrigerated for more than two hours poses health risks. All food items need to be maintained at a proper cold or hot temperature to avoid spoilage or bacterial contamination, and all kitchen surfaces and implements, of course, must be kept scrupulously clean.

A final significant food-service risk factor is psycho-social stress. Food service workers, says OSHA, are among those subject to the highest levels of workplace violence. This, in turn, is likely because the highest rate of illicit drug use of all American occupations is that among food service workers (17.4 percent).

“Substance abuse,” says Terry Cline, Ph.D.—administrator of the U.S. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration—“is a serious problem for the health, well-being, and productivity of everyone in the workplace.”

Far too many food service workers experience high job stresses as a result of their own substance abuse or that of their coworkers. Substance abuse can lead to job loss as a result of diminished productivity, chronically strained working relationships, and conflict resulting in violence.

The food service industry, joined by a number of advocacy organizations, senses the urgency of finding solutions to the high levels of risks prevalent among food service employees. Legislative steps are in process or being planned to bring about a far safer working environment for those who work in food service.

Meanwhile, awareness of the existing risks on the part of managers, owners, and safety administrators can do much to relieve these risks, even in the absence of legislation. Closer monitoring of worker compliance with existing regulations, and common-sense steps to protect worker health and safety, can do much to bring about improvement.

by Ken McFarland

Posted by Griffith Publishing

Note: All articles posted under healthworks.wordpress.com can be copied, edited, or excerpted without fees or permissions if the content is used in the worker-centered health promotion program of a business or organization. For  information about using this content for other purposes such as  promoting health and wellness for profit, please get in touch with Griffith Publishing at the link above.

An employee was pulling cable under a building when a venomous snake bit him. Startled, the worker jerked away from the snake and stood up. As he did so his head met with a long rusty nail that penetrated his skull and lodged in his brain. He fell forward and struck his head against a pipe. Two years later the man’s speech is still slurred, and he has balance problems.

If he’d been treated immediately for the snakebite, he would have been fine in a few hours. If he’d been wearing a hard hat instead of a cloth company cap, the rusty nail and the pipe would not have dented his head.

You can read the whole story here.

Now go back to your business and think about how many times workers crawl under or over or through obstacles without head protection. Maybe the worker is next to heavy equipment for only a few minutes, just to deliver a tool to the operator. Or maybe it’s a construction site, and you’re not that worried about a wall going up and then crashing on top of two or three workers. Never happened before. You can think of a dozen of so such events that have never happened where you work.

Be a champion for proper head protection at work. Doesn’t matter because you’re a contractor and aren’t required by law to follow safety rules set by OSHA? You’ve gone without head protection for thirty years, so nothing’s going to happen now? It gets hot out here. Who wants to have a heavy-duty hat on his head?

You know the answers. Support  safety, especially head safety. When a worker suffers a severe head injury, your company suffers.

Submitted by Griffith Publishing
Producers of HealthWorks publications since 1991

Source: Occupational Health & Safety

Consider what would happen if your workforce is suddenly reduced because workers are ill, afraid they might become ill, or are recovering from illness. The Centers for Disease Control recommends staying in a self-imposed quarantine until 24 hours after the fever has left without fever-reducing medications. Most people who contract the disease but are not hospitalized have a fever from two to four days.

What about the situation that could develop if your workers become ill but stick it out on the job? Your business could quickly become a breeding ground for the disease. Another way to foster growth of the virus is from your workers traveling to meetings and bringing H1N1 back with them. Restricting travel—especially to countries such as Mexico, India, Chile, Thailand, and Canada where high rates of flu-like diseases are being reported—is recommended as one effective way to help keep your workforce free from the disease.

Whatever your workers may be facing, the reality is that as a business owner your first obligation is to provide a safe place for them to work. You don’t want to encourage workers to stay on the job when they have flu symptoms because that could start up an epidemic at your business. Such an event could even set you up for a costly lawsuit.

Educate your employees about being safe during a flu epidemic. Plan ahead for projects or assignments that could be done at home. Above all, be sure the H1N1 virus is unwelcome at your place of business.

Copyright © 2009 by Griffith Publishing. The comments provided on these pages can be used by any business to promote health and safety in their workplace. The use of these materials for resale, consulting, or any commercial use is not allowed without specific, advance permission from Griffith Publishing.

Perhaps you’ve watched a fast-food worker, wearing latex gloves, making your sandwich and then been appalled to see that same worker, take your money, ring up your order, hand you your change and order, and start the whole process over again—never changing gloves.

The New York Times recently reported that 20 years after disposable gloves became common in the food service industry, it is not clear they have made any measurable difference in the transmission of illness. Yes, the gloves can prevent most of the millions of bacteria teeming on a worker’s hands from being transmitted to your food, but only if the gloves themselves are clean. Hence the problem!

One survey of thousands of American restaurant workers showed that more than a third said they didn’t always change their gloves between handling raw meat or poultry, and touching readyto-eat food.

Disposable gloves are also being reexamined, because it turns out that a lot of people are allergic to latex. Rhode Island, Arizona, and Oregon have banned latex gloves from restaurants because of customer complaints and workers’ compensation claims arising from latex allergies.
Some restaurants have therefore turned to vinyl gloves. But these are now shown to contain a chemical that is carcinogenic. As a result, Japan has already banned vinyl gloves from all its restaurants.

Latex gloves not effective? Vinyl gloves not safe?

We’re not talking about healthcare workers with their high risk of exposure to disease oganisms in bodily fluids, but when it comes to our food preparers, perhaps the time has come to institute a radical alternative. Let’s consider a return to abandoning gloves in favor of educating food workers in the use of plenty of hot, soapy water between tasks.

Never before have Idaho businesses faced the very real possibility of a specific disease threatening their workforce.

In July of this year, the worst case scenario for the flu epidemic in the U.S. in 2009-10 was a picture of 90 million Americans infected with influenza and nearly two million deaths. The report was given by Dr. Jennifer Ashton, medical correspondent for CBS News, on “The Early Show.”

Most schools have been affected in the Treasure Valley, with some reporting 30 percent of students absent due to flu-like symptoms. In Idaho, fewer than a dozen deaths from H1N1 have been confirmed, and all of the victims had underlying conditions that contributed to their death. The number of affected Idaho residents by the H1N1 virus is expected to climb even as H1N1 vaccines are being provided to high-risk groups.

The virus known as “novel H1N1” is a new version of typical H1N1 influenza. (The “H” and “N” stand for the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase proteins in the virus.) H1N1 is a subspecies of the Influenza A virus that has mutated into a variety of flu strains, probably including the Spanish flu virus that killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide from 1918 to 1919. The current virus may have originated as “swine flu” but is not spread by pigs but from person to person without any contact with swine or swine-related products.

At top priority to receive the vaccine are people at higher risk of health complications from H1N1 infection, and those more likely to transmit infection to the most vulnerable. They include the following:

• Pregnant women.
• Household contacts and caregivers for children younger than 6 months.
• Healthcare and emergency medical services personnel.
• All people from 6 months through 24 years of age.
• People age 25 to 64 with health conditions indicating a greater risk of medical complications from influenza.

Business owners and supervisors are urged not to ignore worst-case scenario numbers but take the steps to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

submitted by Griffith Publishing

Sleepy workers?

Might as well toss money spent on training and materials into the sewer.

One in three workers said they’d fallen asleep or had been very sleepy at work within the past month. This is the result of a survey of 1,000 people by the National Sleep Foundation.

Researchers have found that sleep-deprivation costs U.S. businesses more than $136 billion every year. A study in Japan three years ago indicated a loss of $30.7 billion a year due to weary or sleepy workers in that country.

In the U.S., sleepy workers are twice as likely as rested ones to be involved in a job-related injury.

The average wake-up time in the U.S. is 5:35 a.m., and average bedtime is 10:53 p.m. Another hour would result in far more productive workers.

Of course, businesses do not have the authority to control the amount of sleep a worker has had before showing up for the shift. They can take steps to make it easier for workers to remain rested throughout the work day. Eliminating 12-hour shifts, providing nap time on the job, and educating employees about the risk of showing up for work dead tired are examples of measures that a business can take to reduce the number of sleep-hungry workers who show up for work.

Note: If you are a health and safety director, manager, or business owner, you have permission to use any HealthWorks blog to promote health and safety among your workers. For consultants or producers of health and safety materials, please call Griffith Publishing at 800 359-9503 to request the use of these copyrighted items.

Brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Is this worker safe?

Here’s a question for the safety director:

Is it true that as long as your workers are at least six feet from an unguarded edge, you’ve met the OSHA requirement and don’t need additional fall protection measures?

This convenient rule of thumb happens to be a myth. Patrick Nies, writing for the latest edition of OSHA’s Region X newsletter, says that the belief in a six-foot margin apparently stems from an OSHA rule requiring fall protection when the worker is six feet or more above a lower level.

However, Nies points out, just having a six-foot distance from the edge doesn’t adequately protect employees from falls that can result in OSHA citations and penalties.
According to Nies, “OSHA’s Subpart M Fall Protection standard (29 CFR 1926.500, 501, 502 & 503) does not establish a safe distance from, or an acceptable proximity to, an edge.”

In some cases such as with nearly flat roofs, warning lines and monitors can take the place of guardrails or personal fall protection equipment even when the lower level is more than six feet below the worker.

As with other OSHA guidelines, common sense is expected of the supervisor and worker in such situations. An unprotected edge, even if the edge is more than six feet away can be dangerous if, for example, the surface is wet or if the slope is steep. Exact dimensions for requiring edge protection are not given by OSHA, but penalties are likely if the danger of falling or sliding off the edge of a surface are obvious.

Falls at work accounted for 14 percent of all work-related fatalities in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

OSHA is part of the Department of Labor. The DOL’s logo is shown above.

A whole industry of businesses publish and post lists and rules and explanations from OSHA.

Our contribution is to develop a library of OSHA’s best checklists. These will be genuine OSHA checklists, not derivatives or rewrites.

Today we introduce a comprehensive and well designed set of checklists under the heading, “computer workstations.”

More to come.

–brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Incremental.

Maybe it’s just a buzz word, but measuring your company’s progress in health and safety on an incremental basis may be worth considering.

Put in simple terms, incremental management for health and safety means identifying key areas most likely to be the site of injuries or mishaps at your work place and setting up procedures to reduce the risk and measure progress in achieving the goal.

One trucking business, for example, was able to use this method to determine that a corporate-wide emphasis on wellness was able to reduce its costs of workers’ comp, disability pay, healthcare and absenteeism. Regular reporting by each department helped the company’s manager to focus on small but consistent improvements in these areas.

Brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Note: If you are a health and safety director, manager, or business owner, you have permission to use any HealthWorks blog to promote health and safety among your workers. For consultants or producers of health and safety materials, please call Griffith Publishing at 800 359-9503 to request the use of these copyrighted items.

They’re on time, notebooks and pencils ready, looking alert. But how long will your workers actually pay close attention to what you’re telling them about health and safety?

For decades we have known that adults can listen for up to twenty minutes, but in today’s fast-paced world, even that short time period is shrinking. Your youngest workers, probably veterans at texting and skype,* may have impaired capacity for
instructions that take longer than a few minutes.

How can you be sure that vital points are getting across to your workers? Here are some tips for making your health and safety information register with your workers.

• Use short sessions and even shorter teaching modules for each topic.
• Let your workers demonstrate procedures such as lock-out tag-out, or treating a severe nosebleed.
• Give short quizzes.
• Divide into small groups to discuss problems
• Show short videos (five to ten minutes) on the topic you are presenting.
• Pause for questions and provide brief answers.
• Include problem-solving exercises, not just questions with definite answers.

Whatever techniques you use, be sure to watch your audience. You can see when a change in pace is needed by maintaining eye contact with the people listening to you,

*Skype is software for calling other people on their computers or telephones.

Brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Note: If you are a health and safety director, manager, or business owner, you have permission to use any HealthWorks blog to promote health and safety among your workers. For consultants or producers of health and safety materials, please call Griffith Publishing at 800 359-9503 to request the use of these copyrighted items.