"workers slightly injured by ultraviolet light..."

The prevention of Covid-19 transmission within our plants has renewed focus on housekeeping like never before. The importance of cleaning and disinfecting surfaces that workers may come into contact with is new to many plants. Here is a recent story where the best of intentions were derailed by a worker.

An employee at an aluminium rolling mill in the USA recently placed an ultraviolet light in a break room at the plant, apparently hoping to protect workers from coronavirus, the external communications manager for the aluminium company  said one day during the last week of April 2020.

But a few workers suffered sunburn-like symptoms and eye problems from exposure to the ultraviolet light, he said. “All are fine and healthy now and back at work,” the external communications manager for the aluminium company said. “It was a case of one employee going above and beyond what should have been done.”

The external communications manager for the aluminium company said employees were told not to do anything like that again.

A national media company reported recently that ultraviolet light has “become fairly standard technology in hospitals, clinics and other places where germs could be in the air. They only work if the air is circulating enough to carry the germs up to the level of the lamps, and then bring this disinfected air back down to where people are breathing.”

The story said, “They (ultraviolet lights) must stay up high because to kill germs, the lamps must emit so much UV light that it would be irritating to people, especially their eyes.” A professor of environmental health, told the network that if the light is intense enough to break apart a virus in a short time, it’s going to be dangerous to people.

We pray that the injured worker recover fully from his injuries. We hope in the future that workers do not stand under UV lights for a period of time. Please note as we reach to our contacts around the globe we have heard on how their plants are adjusting to social distancing, and working to stop the transmission of Covid 19 in their workplaces. All too often we have been told that breakrooms, cafeterias, etc. have been temporary closed.

Finally, there is a multitude of resources online for aluminium companies to follow to mitigate the transmission of Covid-19 in the workplace. Lastly, we caution all readers to take the health and safety recommendations from their government pertaining toward mitigating the COVID-19 transmission.

Please comment.