Re: Drinks on the shop Floor????
The no eating or drinking rules, when present, are not always for protection of the product, they may be in place for the protection of the employee.
At a testing laboratory where I previously worked, we were cited by OSHA as a violation for allowing food and drinks in the work areas. They then followed up by requiring air monitoring be worn on several of the employees (at company expense) and sampling of the lunch room table for contaminants.
The two primary areas they were concerned about were the machine shop area, where there was various types of drilling, sawing, grinding, etc. of metal samples, and in the chemical analysis area, where there were metal samples and chemical reagents.
Results showed that the breathed air was about 1/100 of permissible levels, at maximum, and the lunch room table was about 1/10 of permissible level for one metal element. We changed the policy to no food or drink in work areas, and employees were supposed to wash their hands before eating or drinking. They were allowed to eat in the lunch room or outside on picnic tables. We still ended up paying some fines, as it was felt it was less expensive than getting a lawyer or fighting it, even though we were technically in compliance.
Wes R.