A Step-By-Step Plan For Foodservice Workplace Safety

Kitchen & Foodservice Facility Safety Analysis - Take a good hard look at your kitchen work areas, shipping and receiving areas, and your food service equipment. Create a spreadsheet or graph of your accident and injury reports to cast a spotlight on areas that tend to present hazards.

Get the right protective equipment - Select personal protective equipment designed for the specific operations and hazards your operation faces. Kitchen and foodservice usually needs hand protection. So, consider cut-resistant or heat-resistant gloves, etc.

When selecting the protective equipment for your kitchen staff make sure they meet the current standards outlined by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and subsequent revisions. Make sure you focus on hand protection equipment that meets OSHA 29 CFR 1910.138 requirements.

100% compliance Establish a mandatory program requiring hand protection throughout all operations areas of your plant. Universal programs prevent injuries better and are easier to enforce than those limited to certain departments, areas or jobs. Provide the proper equipment and require each worker to be responsible for his or her own gloves and other safety equipment.

Plan for emergencies Establish first-aid procedures for injuries. Make eyewash stations accessible, particularly where chemicals are used. Train employees in basic first aid and identify those with more advanced first-aid training. Also, train for fire related emergencies.

Train and inform your workers - Plan continuing educational programs to establish, maintain and reinforce the need for personal protective equipment and safety best practices. Add workplace safety to your regular employee education/training and orientation programs. Make sure management personnel set an example by wearing protective equipment where and when it is required. Review and revise your strategy and implementation. Your goal should be the elimination of all accidents and injuries.

Documentation - after you have all the elements of your safety program established, put them in writing. Display a copy of the policy in all employee areas, and include a review of the policy in new employee orientation.

Hand Injury Statistics

• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor (www.dol.gov), food stores and eating and drinking establishments reported more than 21,000 cut and puncture injuries resulting in lost workdays in 1996. In the same year, nearly 8,000 heat burn injuries resulted in lost workdays in grocery stores and restaurants.
• In 1999, the BLS recorded these hand injuries: 20,964 cuts and punctures from knives, 6,405 heat burns and scalds, and 6,685 fingertip amputations.
• According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) Fact Sheet 93-03, the financial cost of these injuries is more than $300 million per year in lost production time, medical expenses and workers’ compensation.

Read the OSHA Hand Protection Standard

How Do Workplace Chemicals Cause Dermatitis?

Harsh chemicals dissolve the essential lipids from the epidermis (top layer of skin). The decrease of lipids (defatting) in the skin is the first physiological symptom of dermatitis caused by irritants. Because the fatty portion of the cell membrane has been dissolved, whitening of the affected area appears. Workers will also complain of dryness.

Some solvents are irritating on contact while others cause no symptoms even though they are penetrating and defatting the skin. Frequent contact with solvents causes chronic cracking and scaling as well as reddening of the affected area. Due to lowered resistance, skin may be more susceptible to irritants for several months and even years after physical symptoms of dermatitis have healed. Once dermatitis has developed, continued exposure to solvents could result in permanent skin damage.

Occupational Skin Disorders

Occupational Skin Disorders (OSD) are a costly workplace hazard. More than 60,000 new cases occur every year, affecting nearly every industry.

Kitchen, and food service may suffer from dermatitis as a result of their constant exposure to water. Constant exposure to cold temperatures makes workers more vulnerable to skin disease. Symptoms vary from slight reddening and itching to a rash with intense itching. Surface damage makes workers' skin more vulnerable to bacterial and fungal infections.

Managers reponsible for safety need to be able to recognize occupational dermatitis so they can take action before serious damage is done.

Symptoms to look for:

• "Whitened" patches of skin
• Dryness
• Itching pimple- or blister-like lesions
• Slight thickening of the outermost layer of skin
• Small cracks
• Redness
• Swelling
• Numbness and/or tingling

Source, OSHA

Skin Disease Statistics

• Most serious skin injuries are caused by cuts, punctures, burns and occupationally related dermatitis.
• NIOSH (www.cdc.gov/niosh) has included skin disease on its Top 10 list of work-related diseases in the U.S.
• Estimates indicate that more than 13 million workers in the United States are potentially exposed to chemicals that can be absorbed through the skin.
• Contact dermatitis is one of the most common chemically induced occupational illness.
• Skin disease accounts for nearly 25% of all occupational injuries for which workers’ compensation claims are filed.
• More than a quarter of all reported cases of OSD result in at least 11 workdays lost per year.
• Overall, the total cost of OSD to American industry – including treatment, lost work time and compensation costs – exceeds $1 billion annually.
• NIOSH develops strategies to help reduce harmful skin exposures. It recommends controlling the work environment to eliminate hazardous skin exposures whenever possible and wearing protective equipment in those situations in which harmful exposures have not yet been controlled.

Source, NIOSH

Latex Sensitivity/Allergy

• Latex refers to the natural rubber latex manufactured from a milky fluid that is primarily obtained from the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). Some synthetic rubber materials may be referred to as "latex" but they do not contain the protein that produces latex allergy.
• Allergy to latex was first recognized in the late 1970s. Since then, it has become a major health concern as an increasing number of people in the workplace have been affected with latex allergy symptoms.
• Health care workers exposed to latex gloves or medical products containing latex are especially at risk. NIOSH (www.cdc.gov/niosh) estimated that 8-12% – between 150,000 and 1 million – of health-care workers are latex sensitive.
• Food service workers are not required to wear natural rubber latex gloves for food handling. Alternatives such as vinyl, nitrile and poly are affordable and comfortable solutions.
• NIOSH also reports that approximately 1% to 6% of the general population is allergic to latex.
• Between 1988-1992, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services received more than 1,000 reports of adverse health effects from exposure to latex, including 15 deaths due to such exposure.
• For more information, see the OSHA Technical Information Bulletin on the Potential for Allergy to Natural Rubber Latex Gloves and Other Natural Rubber Latex Products.

Source, OSHA

First Aid for Burn and Cut Injuries

Kitchen and foodservice environments are full of hazards like open flame and boiling liquids, knives, and sharp-edged machinery. Kitchen and foodservice injuries can range from minor to severe.

Burns, scalds and cuts are among the most common injuries in a foodservice or food processing operation. Training in basic first aid is essential to the overall safety of kitchen and foodservice workplaces. You can get first aid training videos here.

Read OSHA's First Aid Requirements