March 9, 2010
Inspection Reveals Tandoori Ovens are Ill-Maintained
The Birmingham City Council went into a flurry of action recently, following a run of mishaps involving tandoors or ovens, at curry houses, which injured quite a few workers. The Council’s Environmental Health initiated a sequence of safety checks across the city, initially focusing on twenty seven restaurants and takeaways that use tandoors.
The inspectors carried out a detailed probe and questioned the management and employees of all the joints. A thorough investigation of the two confiscated ovens which had caused the accidents, found the tandoors to be defective.
A curry house situated in Handsworth, named Chandni Chowk Restaurants and Sweets, was found to be using an oven which had been installed by a chef instead of an engineer. Naturally, it was defective and exploded while it was being lit, causing extensive burns on the hands, face and eyes of a worker. When the case went to the court, the owner pleaded guilty for using an ill-maintained oven and the Birmingham Magistrates Court imposed a fine of £3,500 on the owners, along with the costs of £2,500.
The officers of the Environmental Health of the Birmingham City Council found further problems with the tandoors. In one case, the oven was installed and maintained by an engineer who was not trained for working with kitchen appliances. At another place, a highly risky practice of lighting up the oven with burning serviettes was being followed. Only a small number of owners were using a safe and proper ignition system. In nearly half of the curry houses, the workers were exposed to the health hazard of dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, which was being released due to poor combustion. Three-quarters of the kitchens were not using interlocking ventilation canopies, resulting in poor ventilation. Many ovens had thrown away all safety norms as they actually appeared to be homemade.
Companies need to be sure that they are giving the correct instructions with effective policies around health and safety decisions. Fire Risk Assessments will benefit organisations in enabling them to understand their responsibilities for fire safety, and put in place measures to control the risks of fire as required under legislation.
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