Meat + Poultry - February 2010 - 70

Sanitation Tips (Consejos Sanitarios)

Working in extreme
temperatures
BY BERNARD SHIRE
meatpoultry@sosland.com

ne challenge facing crews
cleaning and sanitizing meat
and poultry plants is the environment they work in. Depending on
the type of plant and the time of
year, working conditions can be
very hot or very cold. Equipment
can be dangerous to clean and cor-

rosive and chemicals are often used
by crews to clean the equipment.
Government safety regulations
must be followed. For these reasons,
sanitation and cleaning crew members often wear Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE) when carrying
out their duties.
Obviously, plant workers are going
to work in cold environments most

of the time. However, the plant temperature can vary greatly, depending
on the type of products being made
when the plant is in operation. Are
only carcasses and meat or poultry
products made in the plant, or is there
cooking in the plant, as well? Does
the plant operate during the day, or
does it operate at night, with crews
cleaning during the day?
There are many precautions
cleaning/sanitation crew members
must take when working in both very
cold and very hot plant conditions.
If the environment is an extremely
cold area, such as a freezer or a shipping area, workers and crew leaders
must take those environmental conditions into account when deciding
on what kind of ensemble components they're going to wear when
cleaning and sanitizing. The same
is true of very hot areas.
Cleaning and sanitation crews
and their crew leaders must also
think about the duration of the
cleaning job when deciding what
kind of protective gear workers
should wear. Most authorities recommend sanitation crew members
work in very cold areas, such as
freezers and shipping locations, for
no more than 20 minutes at a time,
even if a chemical suit is being worn.
Even if the time period in the cold is
limited to 20 minutes, workers can
still experience numbness in some
of their joints. If workers spend even

70 * Meat&Poultry * February 2010 * www.MeatPoultry.com

more time in extremely cold work environments in the plant, this exposure could result in frost bite.
Prolonged exposure to cold or
freezing temperatures can cause
serious health problems in workers, such as trench foot, frostbite
and hypothermia. In extreme cases, including cold water emersion,
death can result. Danger signs can
include uncontrolled shivering,
slurred speech, clumsy movement,
fatigue and confused behavior.
At the same time, wearing full
body chemical protective clothing to
prevent dangerous chemical burns
sets up crew members for risk of
developing heat stress because of
being covered by this protective
gear. The effects on the health of
the workers can range from mild
heat fatigue all the way to serious
illness or even death.
Cleaning crew supervisors must
be prepared to identify and respond
in an emergency and call for help
when necessary. ■
Bernard Shire is M&P's Washington correspondent based in Lancaster, Pa. With a background in editing and writing for daily news
publications, he also works as a food safety
consultant and writer for Shire & Associates.
M&P's Sanitation Tips are to be used only
as guidelines for cleaning and sanitizing processing facilities. Specific issues and questions should be addressed by a sanitation
crew supervisor.
We would like to hear from you - to comment
on this story or to request reprints, contact us
by e-mail at:meatpoultry@sosland.com.

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Meat + Poultry - February 2010

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