In light of Covid-19 is anyone making face masks mandatory in their facilities? Can this be optional?

Wow, if you have an auditor like that you need a new Certifying Body, lol. Pest control are essential to the facility's food safety programs, so are uniform folks as long as proper social distancing guidelines are adhere too. but even most certifying bodies are delaying their audits by six months. 

Interesting interview was done with a virus researcher/developer who indicated cv is not airborne and the only way it can be transmitted is via injection (suchvas a vaccine), by tainted blood supply - this is how HIV was introduced to 25,000,000 Americans and possibly by actual cv tedting that could be tainted, but she doubted this. A second doctor indicated that there are only 3 known airbornes and they are TB, Ebola and Small Pox.

Now we could have a discussion all day long about why agencies are directing people to wear masks, but I don't deal with ignorance - I was ignorant of this myself when this all came out but I learned quickly from the medical community, scienctists, researchers etc and we started advising our clients accordingly.

Not going into full disclosure here but all I will say is that we hope more food company owners and senior management will understand that by forcing employees to wear face masks without an understanding of the consequences of this order on their employees health may very well result in very dire consquences to the company.

Sorry for typos, out here in the wilds of farming country wuth internet but bad lighting.

Wow, if you have an auditor like that you need a new Certifying Body, lol. Pest control are essential to the facility's food safety programs, so are uniform folks as long as proper social distancing guidelines are adhere too. but even most certifying bodies are delaying their audits by six months. 

Yea the auditor we have had the last two years is very strict about what we say, down to the word.  If we said visitors are not allowed, that means everyone.  If we say only essential visitors will be allowed then it would be all set.  Very nitpicky, and even though he is not supposed to, I think he is just trying to help us have the strongest food safety plan possible.

The wearing of masks in production areas where distancing is not possible will be mandatory in my place starting this week. Not something I support personally but hey ho

 

This current thread on face masks may be of use if you are introducing masks:

https://www.ifsqn.co...ssing-facility/

My facility wants to make face masks mandatory (I disagree with the decision for many reasons) and then make beard nets optional. The rationale behind that was if an inspector came in the Covid prevention would trump the GMPs and that the face mask "covers" enough of the beard. 

Has any else done something like this? Does their argument make sense? I have my thoughts, but any input would be greatly appreciated! 

My facility wants to make face masks mandatory (I disagree with the decision for many reasons) and then make beard nets optional. The rationale behind that was if an inspector came in the Covid prevention would trump the GMPs and that the face mask "covers" enough of the beard. 

 

Has any else done something like this? Does their argument make sense? I have my thoughts, but any input would be greatly appreciated! 

Per CDC - https://www.business...ce-masks-2020-2

Not from the CDC - https://www.ncbi.nlm...les/PMC3293316/

Here in Michigan we have a lot of rules to follow if we want to stay open, and we will follow every one of them to the letter of the law, but following State laws isn't enough - our local county got in to the act and requires us to post the attached at all entrances to the building.  good times

https://www.waynecou..._businesses.pdf

My facility wants to make face masks mandatory (I disagree with the decision for many reasons) and then make beard nets optional. The rationale behind that was if an inspector came in the Covid prevention would trump the GMPs and that the face mask "covers" enough of the beard. 

 

Has any else done something like this? Does their argument make sense? I have my thoughts, but any input would be greatly appreciated! 

This is a study I found. It still needs to be peer-reviewed but it is in that process.

https://www.preprint.../202004.0203/v1

We still require beard nets on top of our masks. We did take away our eye wear policy away temporarily for all employees due to fogging issues. Now only those who handle chemicals must wear them.

Mask are the NORM and no way around it. I'm finding individual around the plant just wearing their face mask, although we require them to wear a beard net on-top. Every time I do it It's feels silly. Most times I'm after them to keep their bear nets on correctly and these mask are doing a better job. 

Mask are the NORM and no way around it. I'm finding individual around the plant just wearing their face mask, although we require them to wear a beard net on-top. Every time I do it It's feels silly. Most times I'm after them to keep their bear nets on correctly and these mask are doing a better job. 

Not Globally. It's Country-by-Country and Interpretation-by-Interpretation. Just as one example, SAGE in UK seem to still believe that science-based evidence to support the general usage of masks in public is lacking.

https://www.express....e-UK-SAGE-rules

@ kfrom NE - thks for interesting review document ( I have attached the pdf below for long-term reliability). I was rather surprised that the review had virtually no references to WHO or CDC publications.

JFI I attach another recent review which evaluates the efficiency of surgical masks vs respirator masks in preventing COVID-type respiratory illnesses in primary care workers.

Conclusion is  -

Standard surgical masks are as effective as respirator masks (e.g. N95, FFP2, FFP3) for preventing infection of healthcare workers in outbreaks of viral respiratory illnesses such as influenza. No head to head trial of these masks in COVID-19 has yet been published, and neither type of mask prevents all infection. Both types of mask need to be used in combination with other PPE measures.  Respirator masks are recommended  for protection  during aerosol generating procedures (AGPs). Rapid reviews on wider PPE measures, and what counts as an AGP, are ongoing.

The general public's use of surgical masks is currently inappropriate due to available supply being required by healthcare personnel however compared to cloth masks I would have thought the former offer a better long-term proposition so that ramping-up (and diversification?) of production is IMO another crucial necessity. Development of a reliably re-usable version would also be a significant advance.

 face masks against Covid-19.pdf   223.39KB   8 downloads

 standard surgical masks vs respirator masks.pdf   797.34KB   4 downloads

PS - it's OT but JFI here is a detailed 2016 review of shields including a comparison to other forms of face/eye protection -

 Review face shields for infection control.pdf   541.1KB   10 downloads

The review states that shield units are easily disinfected, ie  re-usable. Afaik this has only been possible for many units with the (recent?) introduction of sanitizable foam inserts,  A nice example (picture/specification)  of such a product here -

https://www.additive...om/faceshields/

This is a study I found. It still needs to be peer-reviewed but it is in that process.

 

https://www.preprint.../202004.0203/v1

 

We still require beard nets on top of our masks. We did take away our eye wear policy away temporarily for all employees due to fogging issues. Now only those who handle chemicals must wear them.

Thanks again, kfromNE. Just in case people haven't actually read this study, I would suggest everyone should. Let me quote some key bits from this:

"A primary route of transmission of SARS-CoV2 is likely via small droplets that are ejected when speaking coughing or sneezing. The most common droplet size threshold has a minimum of 5 pm to 10 pm [...]"

"Masks can also be used for source control, which refers to blocking droplets ejected by the wearer, as well as PPE. Although we consider both of these as important, our focus in this paper is on source control, because if everyone is wearing masks to decrease the chance that they themselves are unknowingly infecting someone, everyone ends up being more protected [...] "

"When considering the relevance of these studies of ingress, it's important to note they are likely to substantially underestimate effectiveness of masks for source control. When someone is breathing, speaking, or coughing, only a tiny amount of what is coming out of their mouths is already in aerosol form. Nearly all of what is being emitted is droplets. Many of these droplets will then evaporate and turn into aerosolized particles that are 3 to 5-fold smaller. The of wearing a mask as source control is largely to stop this process from occurring, since big droplets dehydrate to smaller aerosol particles that can float for longer in air [...]

"Our review of the literature offers evidence in favor of widespread mask use to reduce community transmission [...]"

"The available evidence suggests that near universal adoption of non-medical masks when out in public, in combination with complementary public health measures could successfully reduce effective-R to below 1.0, thereby stopping community spread. Economic analysis suggests that the impact of mask wearing could be thousands of US dollars saved per person per mask [...]"