A majority of adults you talk to will tell you that they go to work when they’re sick, which seems to be an epidemic of sorts. There are jobs in the world where doing that can be a major risk in regards to the health of not only your workers but especially your customers. For example, you’d never want anybody in a public position to go to work sick – that’s how to go about spreading a sickness all over an entire city. If you work in a hospital or a restaurant, you can be putting an abundance of people at risk; and that’s a problem.
The norovirus is one of the most concerning things to look out for in regards to food processing workers, it’s the most common foodborne illness. It’s responsible for around 35% of food illness reports, which is a shocking amount. There are billions of virus particles in every single gram of stool/vomit secreting from people afflicted with the norovirus. It only takes around 20 of these particles to get somebody sick, so you can imagine just how severe an epidemic like this could break out into (if people weren’t careful, of course).
The norovirus can travel from surface to surface with ease, and it takes a very large amount of bleach to kill it. It means that restaurants and other avenues of food need to be consistent with their cleanliness, as well as the products they’re using in the process. It’s the exact same virus that was inflicting itself upon restaurants and their customers all over the country last year, as around 140 people (which includes the majority of our beloved Boston College basketball team) got sick from eating at a local Chipotle. One person went to work sick, and as a result got well over 100 people sick as well.
That story alone can show you just how powerful the norovirus can be, and considering the fact that going into work sick has become somewhat of a norm, it’s a problem that needs to be attended to. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has put in place something known as the “Food Code”, which states that food workers must stay home for at least 24 hours after their symptoms have gone away.
Although the FDA has created the rule, not all states have implemented (or are obeying) it.
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