Wearing a mask on your face at work?

[Neva]

Who else gets asked this?

I had a health care worker exclaim to us that we should be wearing like a dust mask or a mask over out mouths while carpet cleaning on a regular basis.

I mentioned to her so far it has not be a standard in the industry because one reason I thought is we don't want to scare our customers about carpet cleaning and walking around with dust masks on while cleaning carpeting everyday.

She stated with the spraying and environmental affects-said don't you think about caring for your lungs, heart, brain and liver?

She also said she wasn't telling us how to do our job..but just exclaimed this is something we all should highly consider and implement.

But then I think about one of my closest friends who works at the Mayo clinic..she says in the OR why the mask is worn mostly is because it's a reminder not to touch your face and of course minimize exposure.

Anyways what are your thoughts to this? Fire away..should it be a standard to have to wear masks while cleaning? I'm not sure I want to wear a mask everyday just doing a simple task such as vacuuming.

Are we becoming to cautious in this world or is it something to seriously think about adding?

 

[Carpet Dude]

If you look like JiMmy.......yes wear face mask and body suit.

 

[Steve Toburen]

I'm no chemist. And I am surprised every day that (as far as I know) I don't have cancer yet due to my deplorable (as in non-existent) personal safety practices in the 70's and 80's with chemicals.

However, I do know something about working on the Home Front and my guess is the tech wearing a mask would be a negative Moment of Truth for the homeowner. Better would be to find non-toxic chemicals and compensate (if needed) with extra agitation, heat and dwell time.

My two cents,

Steve Toburen CR
Director of Training
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success

PS I do think we should focus more on personal protection for specific, toxic work. When I think of the CAT 3's I used to do with bare hands and leather shoes I cringe! At least I washed my hands after yanking the pad ... MOST of the time!

 

[Rambo]

I agree with Steve about the Cat 3 we used to work barehanded. Chems today are fairly safe but the vac some use are polluting the air in our customer/clients homes and our lungs (for those of us who vac every job) is the largest health hazard IMHO. We now use anti-allergen bags and install new bags at almost every job to help cross contamination. Hey, it works for us.

 

[Derek]

the missus and I have discussed many times wearing one...especially when we would do nightly office cleaning. we decided against it because we would probably scare alot of clients into wondering what are we using that is so toxic to our (their) health?

thanx --- Derek.