eMerge, which demonstrated an
early prototype for The Associated
Press, said its first clean-hand
scanners could go on sale as early as
year's end to restaurants, nursing
homes, hospitals and day-care
centers. Using identification cards,
the devices can even record which
employees scrubbed acceptably and
which ones still have dirty hands.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/pte....ap/index.html

Mark Thorson wrote:

eMerge, which demonstrated an early prototype for The Associated
Press, said its first clean-hand scanners could go on sale as early
as year's end to restaurants, nursing homes, hospitals and day-care
centers. Using identification cards, the devices can even record
which employees scrubbed acceptably and which ones still have dirty
hands.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/pte....ap/index.html



I was expecting an electronic nose -- analagous to random police checks
with finger-sniffing dogs.

Best regards,
Bob

I can imagine the technology having a beneficial use in commercial
kitchens because it provides an easy way to avoid a subject that no one
wants to talk about.


I am reminded of an incident I read about in The Miami Herald many years
ago. Apparently there had been a minor outbreak of hepatitis in the
local hospitals. The public health officials zoomed in to discover what
the patients had in common that could lead them to the source of the
outbreak. It turned out that all had eaten at a particular gourmet
store/restaurant. The employees were tested. One tested positive. He
was a low level worker, not a professional chef. It was probably a part
time or summer job for him. He had no symptoms. He wouldn't have
spread the disease if he'd washed his hands after wiping his ass.


The next time I was in the store, everyone was wearing hairnets and
plastic gloves. The place was exaggeratedly clean. It went out of
business anyway. Nothing could erase the association in the public's mind.


I'm sure the owner wished he had some way of mentioning the embarrassing
subject. You can put a sign in the employee washroom reminding people
to wash their hands, but some will ignore it. I suppose you could make
little comments about hand washing when you see someone leaving the
men's room, but that's no way to treat adults. You assume they know and
hope for the best. When I owned a small catering business, I and the
other senior staff exited the bathroom and then washed our hands in full
view of the other employees at the small hand sink that the department
of health insisted I install for that purpose. That worked. Since
everyone including the dishwashers and delivery people could see us
doing it, they washed their hands in full view also. I never had to
figure out how to remind people in their native language or ask if
they'd done so. It was just something we all did.


If you installed a fancy hi-tech gadget, you could explain that it
detects if hands are clean enough without going into detail about what
it's detecting exactly. Using it could be a habit or a game.


--Lia

I am reminded of an incident I read about in The Miami Herald many years
ago. Apparently there had been a minor outbreak of hepatitis in the
local hospitals. The public health officials zoomed in to discover what
the patients had in common that could lead them to the source of the
outbreak. It turned out that all had eaten at a particular gourmet
store/restaurant. The employees were tested. One tested positive. He
was a low level worker, not a professional chef. It was probably a part
time or summer job for him. He had no symptoms. He wouldn't have
spread the disease if he'd washed his hands after wiping his ass.


The next time I was in the store, everyone was wearing hairnets and
plastic gloves. The place was exaggeratedly clean. It went out of
business anyway. Nothing could erase the association in the public's mind.


I'm sure the owner wished he had some way of mentioning the embarrassing
subject. You can put a sign in the employee washroom reminding people
to wash their hands, but some will ignore it. I suppose you could make
little comments about hand washing when you see someone leaving the
men's room, but that's no way to treat adults. You assume they know and
hope for the best. When I owned a small catering business, I and the
other senior staff exited the bathroom and then washed our hands in full
view of the other employees at the small hand sink that the department
of health insisted I install for that purpose. That worked. Since
everyone including the dishwashers and delivery people could see us
doing it, they washed their hands in full view also. I never had to
figure out how to remind people in their native language or ask if
they'd done so. It was just something we all did.


If you installed a fancy hi-tech gadget, you could explain that it
detects if hands are clean enough without going into detail about what
it's detecting exactly. Using it could be a habit or a game.


--Lia

Most restaurants, even high end establishments, have inadequate lavatories,
they're usually not well maintained (they're filthy and they stink), and many
have no hot water, no soap, and use paper towels which are strewn about like it
was a land fill... it's no wonder the employees don't wash in the restaurant's
facilities. Even the fast food chains have filthy inadequate rest rooms and
they can well afford proper plumbling and a trained maintainence person... but
who do you think cleans, the booger flippers take turns is who. The only place
I've seen proper public rest rooms of late are those at the NYS Thruway rest
stops; all water is operated by electric eye, the facilities are kept spotless
and disinfected at all times, there's plenty of hot water and soap dispensors
are kept filled. The hand dryers are the hot air type and incorporate an
ulta-violet lamp sanitizer. Those rest rooms are quite large, but there is a
maintainence person inside the facility at all times, also acts as a crime
deterent... you'd be amazed at how many people get mugged inside restaurant
restrooms, especially well bejeweled ladies.


---= BOYCOTT FRENCH--GERMAN (belgium) =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
Sheldon
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"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."