Beard Bags (facial hair in a dairy)

Hi everyone,

I've been hired to a dairy in Canada as a supervisor and what a mess their beard bag policy is! There are people wearing these small chin covers when they have big sideburns and others wearing there full head covers that don't seem to cover well either.

I've taken this little project on to clean things up but I am running into obstacles.

1 trying to find the best headcover for facial hair (the full headcovers here are ok but maybe someone else has a better one?)
2 I'm running into "safety" concerns that employees are saying that they can't wear earmuffs over the headcovers because they don't work properly then

These UNION workers say that they can't use the in-ear plugs because they irritate their ears -- I think its a load of rubbish but I'm new and can't rock the boat too much yet.


Any ideas or experience anyone??

What do dairy's in India do where there must be many big beards?

thx

Jerry

Beard bags! Never heard them called that, we call them beard snoods in the uk. Sites I've worked in use snoods like this:




I think they're reasonable to cover most facial hair in combination with a mob cap as above.

As for ear protection, the inside the ear protectors are perfectly acceptable and, in fact, generally accepted to be more effective than the ones which go over the ears. This is because the ones which go over the ears have to be checked regularly for damage because they need to form a seal around the ear. I would approach your problem with that by approaching the head of the union with the health and safety concerns of using the alternative method and asking for their support. I know UK unions anyway are really twitchy about H&S and would be horrified to have it implied they don't have that at the heart of everything they do.

Hello,

There are different in ear plugs you can use. But first you have to determine how much dB(A) there is in the factory. Different earplugs for different levels of noise.

I don't know which type of earplug the union workers are not happy with. There are special adapted earplugs on the market Otoplastieken website (dutch) not a canadian website but youget the idea. The earplugs are made for your ears and they can change the different filters for different areas in the factory. Of course the cost of those are a bit higher. But the cheaper 1 x use earplugs cost more in the long run.

If you need more info let me know.


Anne

Hi everyone,

I've been hired to a dairy in Canada as a supervisor and what a mess their beard bag policy is! There are people wearing these small chin covers when they have big sideburns and others wearing there full head covers that don't seem to cover well either.

I've taken this little project on to clean things up but I am running into obstacles.

1 trying to find the best headcover for facial hair (the full headcovers here are ok but maybe someone else has a better one?)
2 I'm running into "safety" concerns that employees are saying that they can't wear earmuffs over the headcovers because they don't work properly then

These UNION workers say that they can't use the in-ear plugs because they irritate their ears -- I think its a load of rubbish but I'm new and can't rock the boat too much yet.


Any ideas or experience anyone??

What do dairy's in India do where there must be many big beards?

thx

Jerry

What standard are you working to / aiming for e.g. BRC, SQF etc. What does it say about facial hair protection, it's smuch easier with a standard on your side.

GMO - what does it say in BRC on this?

Regards,
Simon

What standard are you working to / aiming for e.g. BRC, SQF etc. What does it say about facial hair protection, it's smuch easier with a standard on your side.

GMO - what does it say in BRC on this?

Regards,
Simon

BRC section 7.5.7 - "Based on risk assessment, snoods for beards and moustaches shall be worn to prevent product contamination"

Has anyone counted up the number of times that "based on risk assessment" is used in the BRC standard?

PAS 220 Section 13.4 is similar for anyone keeping track:

Work wear shall provide adequate coverage to ensure that hair, perspiration, etc. cannot contaminate the product.

Hair, beards and moustaches shall be protected

(i.e. completely enclosed) by restraints unless hazard analysis indicates otherwise.

To tsmith7858:


Near as I can tell, there are 28 BRC clauses with 'risk assessment' or similar wording. That does not include clauses discussing risk in a manner that would require an assessment to define the risk...
However, I am sure that will change with version 6!

To tsmith7858:


Near as I can tell, there are 28 BRC clauses with 'risk assessment' or similar wording. That does not include clauses discussing risk in a manner that would require an assessment to define the risk...
However, I am sure that will change with version 6!

Seems like it would be easier if they just opened with, "everything contained within requires a risk assessment to show the level of risk and qualify your actions"