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Runny nose in chilled environment

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primadeli

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Posted 03 June 2014 - 10:45 PM

OK so it's a bit of a yukky subject but, we have the majority of staff working in a chilled environment making ready to eat foods (either below 15 degrees centigrade or below 5 degrees) which tends to cause most people's noses to run.  I'm not talking about people with colds or sinus infections etc, just the normal way that your nose runs if you are in a colder environment.

 

The staff are working on a conveyor and are VERY busy on it.

 

Other than the obvious "leave your work station, blow your nose and then wash and sanitise your hands and replace gloves prior to returning to your workstation", are there any suggestions on how to prevent this, or how to handle this without losing production time?

 

I would be interested in hearing from other people dealing with the same issue/conditions.



TAN85

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Posted 04 June 2014 - 08:56 AM

hi there, pretty interesting dilemma, I'd love to read other suggestions, however the only thing I can think of is some type of mask (maybe cotton or similar?)  that's heavy enough to filter the cold air and "warm it up"before it's breathed in, and yet allows them to breathe ???? kind of like having a scarf around your nose in winter. Also depends on the amount of time they spend in the chilled area .... good luck figuring that out!


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Posted 04 June 2014 - 06:08 PM

I actually worked at a facility with this same issue. We found out that if the employee's neck/head/face area remained warm, the nose running wasn't as bad. We allowed our employees to wear hooded sweatshirts and scarves to provide this extra warmth, as long as the production smock still covered all garments. Hairnets were still worn over top of the hood around the head as well. Scarf ends needed to be tucked into the sweatshirt to prevent them from hanging down and touching machinery, cutting boards,etc.

 

While this seemed to help us a lot, there still were some employees who could not adjust to the colder temperatures and needed to wear medical face masks to add another layer of warmth, and which also added a protection barrier from any nose "drippings" falling onto the surface below. Hope this helped. 



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Setanta

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Posted 04 June 2014 - 06:26 PM

We are in a cool/refrigerated area and we advocate bundling up (No scarves) and asking people to leave the floor to blow their nose, etc.

Keeping your head warm does make a difference, as does just getting used to the situation

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Setanta


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Snookie

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Posted 04 June 2014 - 08:57 PM

I would agree with what was said above.  Layers, and adjustment seem to work wonders.  For those who just quite adjust the facial masks seem to help. 


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