First blog of 2021 and I’m avoiding another Covid-19 compliance discussion.  So, I asked my good friend Tricia Bland, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, with several decades of professional experience:  What should I eat to help me resist the Covid-19 virus?
She sent me 2 short pages containing 7 herbs and 8 food sources which can help boost your resistance and reduce inflammation.  Some of my daily favorites on the list are cinnamon and almonds which made me feel great about some of my diet…:)  If you want to get more information, please reach out to Tricia at www.triciabland.com. 
 
For me, the formula for success has been diet (healthy breakfast) , daily exercise (walking or gardening count), sleep (at least 7 hours) and stress management (10 minutes of meditation).  Hope this helps!
 
Have a great and safe 2021!

Ben Laverty IV

The Best Herbs for Reducing Inflammation

Anti-Inflammatory Meal Planning

95° + temperatures have hit in the Central Valley.  We are updating Heat Illness Prevention Programs to incorporate Covid-19 precautions. In this blog we are focusing on two specific areas: water and shade.

First, I’d like to address water as everyone needs to be consuming adequate fluids, especially when the weather is hot. It’s important to follow personal hygiene and sanitization practices for commonly touched surfaces.  Igloo jugs to fill single use cups will need to be monitored and sanitized appropriately.  Even the single use water bottles will need to be handled with proper personal hygiene caution. As always, make sure you are providing sufficient quantities of cooled fresh water at 1 quart per person per hour in the workplace.

Preventative recovery rest breaks is the next area to be addressed.  Shaded rest areas must be provided.  For every two hours worked employees must be provided with a preventative rest period of at least 10 minutes. Employers must take additional measures to be sure that employees can take a break in a shaded area while obeying social distancing of 6 feet.

Employees should be trained to keep 6 feet of social distance during breaks and transportation to prevent infection.

In California, Cal/OSHA will continue to enforce regulations associated with COVID-19 and hazards associated with the workplace including heat illness and other applicable hazards. Please review your Heat Illness Prevention programs with a review of your specific COVID-19 procedures. 

Please contact us if we can help you in adjusting your plans accordingly.

Essential Industries with an employee who tests positive for COVID-19

1. Isolate sick worker from other employees.
2. Inform other employees while protecting privacy under HIPAA laws.
3. Perform a contact tracing of the employee at your workplace for the previous 14 days including contractors and suppliers who may have been in close contact* with the infected worker.
4. Sanitize surfaces which the worker may have touched including tools and transportation.
5. Monitor employees who were potentially exposed. Ask daily about symptoms and potential exposures. Train employees to inform you if any symptoms appear while working and isolate any employee who has symptoms. Consider monitoring temperatures of employees.
6. If contact tracing indicates the employee was exposed while working then recording (worker comp) and reporting to Cal/OSHA if the illness leads to a fatality, in-patient hospitalization or disfigurement.
7. Review your companies code of safe practice for COVID-19 and review your infectious disease management plan and update as needed.

** Data is limited to define of close contact. Factors to consider when defining close contact include proximity (within 6 feet), the duration of exposure (e.g., longer exposure time likely increases exposure risk), whether the individual has symptoms (e.g., coughing likely increases exposure risk) and whether the individual was wearing a facemask (which can efficiently block respiratory secretions from contaminating others and the environment).

Sources: Cal/OSHA, CDC, OSHA, CA DHS and HHS

Here are the latest versions of the COVID-19 posters for your employees, available now in English and in Spanish

This CSTC Response Plan template is intended to protect workers and ensure continuity of operations in case of an infectious outbreak specifically at this time, COVID-19.

Ben Laverty IV talks about Wellness, and how that can help employees and employers, in regards to safety and productivity and efficiency in everything you do. Learn how CSTC is trying to focus on their employees wellness, and some of the less known benefits of wellness.