Food flavour wrecks lungs

Food flavouring wrecked my lungs
US foodworkers have been disabled by “popcorn lung”, a potentially fatal condition caused by a common food flavouring. For 10 years this seemed to be just a US problem. Then came Yorkshire factory worker Martin Muir, 38, who tests revealed has the lungs of an 80-year-old man.

When agency worker Martin Muir (right) was offered a full-time job by flavourings firm Firmenich in 2003, he thought he was lucky. “It was alright. I could see I could get further up if I put my head down and got on,” he recalled.

Within three years, exposure to an artificial butter flavouring used in thousands of products including frozen dinners, baked goods, home baking products, crisps, snacks, sweets, butter substitutes, sprays and oils and other processed foods, had cost the father of four his marriage, his health and his job. “When you do lung function tests it gives you a lung age. I come out about 80 years old,” Martin said. “If I run upstairs, I’m out of breath. I was fit as a butcher’s dog before, I’ve always been healthy. They reckon I’ve lost 25-30 per cent of my lung capacity. It doesn’t sound like a lot but when you try do anything you realise it is.”

In December 2005, the firm, based in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, referred him to a chest physician, who confirmed he had bronchiolitis obliterans, a normally rare but sometimes life-threatening condition. The work link was only spotted at all because he was by chance referred to one of the few UK specialists familiar with the US cases.

Work in hot or cold environments

The risk to the health of workers increases as conditions move further away from those generally accepted as comfortable. Risk of heat stress arises, for example, from working in high air temperatures, exposure to high thermal radiation or high levels of humidity, such as those found in foundries, glass works and laundries. Cold stress may arise, for example, from working in cold stores, food preparation areas and in the open air during winter.
Assessment of the risk to workers’ health from working in either a hot or cold environment needs to consider both personal and environmental factors. Personal factors include body activity, the amount and type of clothing, and duration of exposure. Environmental factors include ambient temperature and radiant heat; and if the work is outside, sunlight, wind velocity and the presence of rain or snow.

Temperatures in indoor workplaces

Environmental factors (such as humidity and sources of heat in the workplace) combine with personal factors (such as the clothing a worker is wearing and how physically demanding their work is) to influence what is called someone’s ‘thermal comfort’.
Individual personal preference makes it difficult to specify a thermal environment which satisfies everyone. For workplaces where the activity is mainly sedentary, for example offices, the temperature should normally be at least 16 °C. If work involves physical effort it

Ventilation

Workplaces need to be adequately ventilated. Fresh, clean air should be drawn from a source outside the workplace, uncontaminated by discharges from flues, chimneys or other process outlets, and be circulated through the workrooms.
Ventilation should also remove and dilute warm, humid air and provide air movement which gives a sense of freshness without causing a draught. If the workplace contains process or heating equipment or other sources of dust, fumes or vapours, more fresh air will be needed to provide adequate ventilation.
Windows or other openings may provide sufficient ventilation but, where necessary, mechanical ventilation systems should be provided and regularly maintained.

WORKSTATIONS

Are you sitting comfortably?

Key points from the checklists:

Postures A bolt-upright posture is unsuitable for long periods of work and for all people; postures that work for occasional keying, for example with the keyboard set back on the desk, cause problems when used for intensive keyboard work.

Wrist rests The OSHA guidance says these can hold the wrist and forearm in awkward postures.

Desk adjustment Fully adjustable desk height, eg. for standing or sitting use, is becoming common in Scandinavia but doesn’t get a mention in HSE’s checklist.

Mice Mouse use gets the full treatment in the OSHA document and there is recognition in HSE’s checklist that forearm support is essential – some of the OSHA recommendations could cause problems.

Consultation Only the Swedish checklist asks how workers are involved in the design of workstations, work tasks and equipment purchase.

Keypads Numerical keypads are causing problems for which there are currently no solutions.

Phones Telephone use is factored into the OSHA guidance.

There is no best buy. Spend some time looking at all of these, and don’t treat HSE’s as a standard. Both the Swedish checklist – in spite of the translation – and the OSHA list make crucial points that the HSE checklist misses.

My computer, my way is another online guide that will help you make your PC more accessible. Easy to use sections give help on: Seeing your screen; using your keyboard and mouse, and help with language and reading.

References

Computer workstations, OSHA checklist, USA. online

Checklist for datascreen workplaces in an office environment, Prevent, Sweden, ISBN: 91 7522682 0. [pdf]

The HSE checklist is available in the publication Working with VDUs (INDG36 rev2), free from HSE Books or [pdf]

My computer, my way www.abilitynet.org.uk/myway/