WARNING TO FOOD HANDLERS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27626, 5 April 1955, Page 6

WARNING TO FOOD HANDLERS

DANGERS OF SMOKINQ

ON DUTY

Food handlers are warned of the dangers of smoking, chewing tobacco, or spitting while they are working, in an article appearing m the latest issue of the Health Department’s official bulletin.

The department says that when a food handler smokes on the job there is always a risk of cigarette ends, ash, or dead matches falling into food being prepared or served. The real danger, however, was in the contamination of food with disease-producing germs from the smokers’ mouths as many people harboured the organisms of trench mouth, streptococcal sore throat, diphtheria, and other droplet infections in the nose and throat, though they might not suffer or show signs of the disease. Smoking tended to promote coughing and spitting, the department says, and with the act of placing cigarettes in the mouth it was almost impossible to avoid getting saliva on the fingers and so transferring any infection present to the food utensil or directly into the food.