Fast-food industry has troubling safety record

If you are one of many who work in fast-food restaurants across Los Angeles, you face unique workplace hazards every time you clock in for your job. This is particularly true if you are young and inexperienced, which is common in your industry because it employs so many teens.

This may also prove particularly true if you work in a fast-food restaurant that specializes in hamburgers. According to HealthDay, about 28,000 fast food industry workers seek emergency medical treatment following on-the-job injuries, with 52.6 percent of those workers hailing from eateries that mainly produce burgers.

Specific fast-food industry hazards

As a fast-food worker, you face industry-specific risks, and many of the injuries suffered by fast-food workers are similar in nature. For example, burns are common among your colleagues, and they are especially common among your teenage coworkers. So much so, in fact, that teens in the fast-food industry are six times more likely to suffer burns than teens working in any other field. Males also tend to suffer work-related burns at higher rates than their female restaurant-industry colleagues.

Hot grease is often a factor in many of those burns, and you also run the risk of taking a tumble because you work around slick grease. Studies show that more than half of all fast-food industry injuries involve slip-and-fall accidents, many of which result from wet or greasy floors, and many of which may be avoidable with better housekeeping practices.

Reducing your risk

While there are steps you can take to reduce your own risk of an injury, such as donning appropriate protective gear and allowing hot grease to cool down before moving it, your employer, too, has a duty to protect you. Keeping restaurants clean and well-maintained and training employees extensively about any potential job-related hazards they face are just a few of the steps they can take to improve employee safety.

Identifying your biggest workplace risks can help you learn to minimize them. Alerting your employer about any safety concerns you may have may help them do the same.