Beware of the oven cleaner
One of your kitchen staff has informed you that they have a blister in the back of their throat that occurred at work. How might this have happened and what steps should you take to prevent a similar incident?
Reportable
When a member of staff was off work for five days because of a blister which occurred whilst at work, you had to report it to the HSE Incident Control Centre (in compliance with the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995). Unfortunately, an inspector from your local authority health and safety department has decided to follow up on the case. So now you know you’re going to have to answer questions about this incident, how should you prepare?
Find out what happened
Your first action should be to find out how the blister was caused. Treat the incident as an accident and carry out an investigation.
Tip. Unlike with a normal accident, the actual time when the blister appeared will be harder to pinpoint. This means that you will need to go through the tasks completed during the day before the employee went off sick. However, in this instance, we suggest that your investigation focuses on cleaning activities and chemical handling.
Probable cause
Blisters, such as the one suffered by your member of staff, are usually caused by exposure to a corrosive chemical substance. In a kitchen environment, this is commonly sodium hydroxide. This is produced when some oven cleaning products are used on very hot surfaces. In many cases, this happens long after the cleaning has finished - usually as a result of the product not being removed properly before the oven, grill etc. is turned on again.
Action plan
Once you’ve identified the cause, you need to put systems in place to ensure that a similar incident doesn’t occur.
Tip 1. Anyone working with oven cleaning products must be given clear instruction on how to use them. For example, many can be used on warm surfaces but not hot ones. Use the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) to identify how a product should be used.
Tip 2. If you haven’t done so already, you should use the MSDS to complete a control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) assessment (see The next step). This should identify the hazards and the safe way of using, handling and storing the products.
Tip 3. Your cleaners should be formally instructed to ensure that they’ve removed all traces of the cleaning product from the surface.
Proof
Once you’ve worked out what happened and how to prevent a similar incident, make sure your paper trail is in order.
Tip. Ensure that you’ve covered the whole incident, from it being reported to you to any final meetings etc. Doing so should convince the inspector that although your systems weren’t quite up to scratch when the incident happened, they are now. This will minimise the chance of enforcement action being taken.
For a free sample COSHH assessment document, visit http://healthandsafety.indicator.co.uk (HS 08.19.02).
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