Hygiene

Maintaining good personal and workplace hygiene is important for a number of reasons.

Employers have a duty under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 to provide adequate facilities; it is up to the employee to ensure they take advantage of the facilities.

Handling soil and compost, in particular, will expose you to potential infection if you do not wash and cleanse your hands, arms, face after having contact with this material. Assuming you don't want to become ill due to work activities and wish to look after yourself then a simple wash and clean up after any work activities will help considerably. Even after handling hand tools and equipment it is important to thoroughly wash and clean your hands.

It is not just you who but also your work colleagues; you don't want to pass on any germs to them and if you were found to be the source of any workplace illness and you hadn't taken the necessary precautions then this would be viewed quite negatively. In addition, consistent poor personal hygiene could result in disciplinary action if your employer felt it was putting th health and safety of others at risk.

Working with soil and plants exposes workers to tetanus and other infections: these can kill you, or serious harm you. Ensure you have an up-to-date tetanus injection plus any other precautionary jabs. Some people may be more susceptible to infection by others, so consult your doctor for advice to suit your circumstances. It is good practice to be prepared and take preventative precautions - these are usually better than curing an illness.

Before you eat or drink (as well as smoke) anything you must wash your hands (and maybe your face, depending on the type of work you have been doing) to ensure you are not spreading or ingesting germs from your work activities.

One area that is sometimes difficult to approach is that of body freshness, especially when taking a break for lunch. Working in the grounds care industry requires a lot of physical activity, which can be really good for keeping your body active and healthy: One downside of this is that physical activity results in lots of perspiration. If you are not working or eating with anyone else then it may not be much of a problem, however, if you do work with others then trying to ensure adequate anti-deodorant and washing and change of clothes will help to keep you fresh and are not offending others. This is a difficult one to balance correctly and common sense needs to prevail amongst work colleagues.