World Water Day 2016 at JIC

World Water Day reminds us about the significance of fresh water and to promote sustainability for fresh water resources management. Each year World Water day highlights a specific aspect of fresh water, this year it is Water and jobs. 

We at JIC celebrated fresh water day on 22/03/2016 and a brief talk was held on focusing our attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of fresh water resources and also it was emphasized on preparation of how we manage water in the future. A video depicting the importance of water was shown and an activity for the staff was conducted.

Mock Drill Importance

Mock Drill is a practice or a trial warning drill conducted by HSE department of any organization. This drill is basically conducted to gauge the knowledge of how promptly and safely the staff evacuates the premises through the emergency exit plan and uses the available resources to avert the emergency situation.

At JIC our Emergency Response Team (ERT) plan and create the scenarios to make it look realistic. The mock drill for different scenarios is conducted once in a month. The ERT members not only monitors the evacuation time but are also responsible to conduct the drill and evaluate the performance of the staff who participated in the drill. 

This drill helps the ERT to understand the effectiveness of the drill and what further course of action that needs to be taken while communicating the importance of such drills.    

  

Here are few scenarios to understand the mock drills in a better way:

Fire Drill : While performing the fire drill the staff has to evacuate the premises and gather at the muster point, an awareness session is conducted to educate them on how to use the fire extinguishers and save themselves from these kinds of situations.

The headcount is taken to understand how many people have reached the muster point and how many are trapped inside the premises so that the rescue operation can be performed to save the trapped persons in case the real fire mishap occurs.

Freezer Trap : When a staff is trapped unknowingly in the walk-in freezer and raises the freezer alarm, how attentive and responsive the other staff in the premises is, in response to the alarm raised and save the person from this trap.  

The mock drills are captured in videos and while conducting the awareness sessions these videos are shown to the staff to educate them on the probable mishap occurrence at workplace.

The above kind of scenarios helps the staff to understand the importance of mock drills and helps them to be prepared and save self when the real situation arises.

Importance of Personal Hygiene of a food handler

It is essential to have good hygiene practices in any food industry. It eliminates the spread of food contamination.

Personal hygiene is important especially on the clothing and cleanliness of a food handler. Food handler should follow all the hygiene standards set in order to save the food from food contamination.

If the food handler is sick, he should not be permitted to work until he is fit to perform his duties.  

The 3 major types of food contaminants that are linked to the personal hygiene are:

Physical Contaminants: the finger nails not properly cut, the hair not trimmed, the buttons not properly stitched, dangling threads from clothing, jewelry etc. are the direct physical sources of food contamination

Chemical Contaminants: If Cosmetics, Perfumes etc. come in contact with the food through food handlers, the color and the flavor changes which ends up in spoilt food and that has to be thrown out thus a great loss to the food industry.

Microbiological contaminants: there are basically 2 types of contaminants which causes food contamination

Staphylococcus Aureus: a bacteria that is found mainly on the skin of the nose or hair. Uncovered wounds leads to the spread of bacteria, which again is a cause of food contamination.

Other Pathogens : other bacteria or virus which multiplies on the hands, clothes, if hands are not washed properly when the toilet is used leads to food contamination.

To avoid the spread of bacteria while handling food, it is essential to have a proper hygiene before the start of food preparation.

Hence proper training on the personal hygiene has to be provided to the food handler.

At JIC it is mandatory to provide proper training to the employees on personal hygiene and always the personal hygiene is emphasized in order to prepare and serve contamination free food to the clients.

Email Attacks

Email has become the primary way to communicate within the corporate industry. It has also become a means for people to stay in touch with family and friends. Of late purchases, bank transactions, ticket booking etc. almost all the transactions are made online and the confirmations are made through emails. Since most of us depend on emails, the email attacks have become one of the prime attack method used by cyber criminals.

In order to save from these attacks, few basic things that are to be kept in mind:

-        Be cautious of emails received with an attachment that was not expected. It might contain virus. It is suggested that antivirus should be used to scan any email attachment. 

-         The emails that ask for passwords, credit card details seems to come from original source, if you are  not sure of the email details, then confidential information should not be provided in response to the  emails.        

-          Avoid using Plugins. Plugins or Add-ons are additional programs that can be installed in the browser  to give more functionality. Install only plugins that are authorized and that is needed, be sure that the  latest version is installed.

-          To update the browser or turn on security setting, choose the browser from Firefox, Chrome etc.

-          If email message that seems to be of suspicious nature are received, call up the person from whom it  has been received it, before responding or opening the attachment.

-          Never click on the links in an email message that requires personal or financial information. To          check the authenticity, enter the web address in the browser window instead.

Report any email that is of suspicious nature to the system administrator, if you don’t understand it.