Hair Nets - Again! Can they be kept on when visiting the bathroom?

Sorry, i know this has been discussed before, but pls give me your thoughts: If in a HC Facility the canteen and toilets are adjacent to the High Care area (not having to go outside the building), could hair nets be kept on?



Thanks!

Tersia

Sorry, i know this has been discussed before, but pls give me your thoughts: If in a HC Facility the canteen and toilets are adjacent to the High Care area (not having to go outside the building), could hair nets be kept on?



Thanks!

Tersia

As a rule of thumb you should have your associates change their hairnets any time they may be contaminated. The canteen vs the toilet facilities are 2 different areas. The likely hood of contamination in a your break rooms is slim whereas the toilet facilities have a much higher risk of contamination due to the nature of the faciilites.

I agree with David. Bathrooms by nature increase the risk of contamination, and when it comes to microbial control it's all about controlling risk. Incidentally, a number of studies have been done demonstrating the invisible aerosoling effect of flushing a toilet, so even if the hairnet only ever contacts your head and it's primary function is to keep hair out of your product it just all comes back to risk reduction.

Hi,

what is the risk of contamination. I prefer to change hair nets only if contaminated. The main risk is that hairs are contaminating clothes. So as long as you don't touch the hair net or change the hair net there is no risk that hairs can be pulled out. Our changing rules (baking industry) are: 1) hair net 2) protecting/hygiene clothes. Change hair nets only if necassary. Switch off hygiene clothes before touching the hair net.

To play Devil's advocate....! A nightmare risk assessment scenario - firstly to John, the risk of aerosolising of fecal contamination has been thoroughly debased by Mythbusters et al (2009, if memory serves me right!) in relation to toothbrushes (I assume it's on youtube!). To moskito, agree with your comments in theory, but auditors tend to prefer to see staff changing all protective clothing when not in the production area. The line between, for example, bald employees and follicly blessed employees is another factor to be considered. To make your life easier, ask all employees to remove all protective clothing on exiting the production area. To make things more practical, take a stance that takes both your employees laziness and your product's safety level into account.

And watch the mythbusters you tube video.

Dear Tersia,

I presume the bathroom is not regarded as part of the High Care Production Area.?

Here is the BRC (June 2012) viewpoint for entering the HC area. I suppose the reverse applies on leaving.
high care.png   143.78KB   51 downloads

I did notice Tesco appeared to have a slightly modified concept although not necessarily applicable to yr OP -

high care T.png   34.27KB   44 downloads

Rgds / Charles.C

Quick thought:

Maybe the rules should be the same as your clothing rules with respect to bathrooms. If you have employees remove all protective clothing, then do the same with hair nets. However, if we remove all hair nets and not other clothing (presumably in a lower risk facility), then removing hair nets seems a little out of place.

Basically: why worry about fecal contamination on hair nets if it's all over clothes? (gross! )

Best of luck!

KDuf

Thanks for all your replies!

I must say, i personally think that the aerosols in the bathroom will contaminate the skin on ones face just as much as the hair nets, and surely ppl do not wash and sanitise their faces when they enter HC!? It is a question of not touching your face and/or hair nets...



Apparently the M&S standard is to keep the hair net on at all times and only discard after the shift has ended.


Kind regards

Tersia

Thanks for all your replies!

I must say, i personally think that the aerosols in the bathroom will contaminate the skin on ones face just as much as the hair nets, and surely ppl do not wash and sanitise their faces when they enter HC!? It is a question of not touching your face and/or hair nets...

Apparently the M&S standard is to keep the hair net on at all times and only discard after the shift has ended.

Kind regards

Tersia

Dear Tersia,

Sorry, i should hv included this one also -
High care T2.png   73.34KB   23 downloads

And similarly "Medium" category
Medium T.png   30.04KB   25 downloads
(exiting medium, eg > toilet seems undefined though.)

The idea of 2 hairnets is I think is to minimise contamination when transferring from medium to high categories (probably sole access route)

The overall prevailing concept looks like no hairnets remain when (finally) exiting production areas which self-solves the toilet question. (or maybe disposed of at/within the toilet/bathroom )

Rgds / Charles.C