On my way home tonight, I stopped in at a local franchise fast food restaurant for a quick meal and was immediately struck by how smokey it was inside. I quickly scanned the obvious sources and saw smoke billowing out from the french fry station. The vent hood wasn’t working and the smoke and fumes were just flowing into the kitchen rather than being pulled up the stack and out of the building the way they should have been. I was only in the building for a few minutes and it’s till bothering my lungs. I can’t imagine what it’s like working next to those fryers for a few hours.
The only sensible option to me would be to shut down those fryers, offer sincere explanations and apologies to the McCustomers and suggest an apple pie instead. Keeping those fryers in operation with non-functioning ventilation seems to me that it would have to be a workplace safety violation. But is it? Does the law as written actually match my expectations?
I guess I’m not really worried about forcing them to fix it. I don’t doubt that they are planning on repairing it as soon as a tech becomes available. My point is that I believe the fryers should be shut down until the vents are repaired. Running them unvented is an unacceptable and possibly criminal safety hazard.
I was in a Famous Gyro George with the same problem. The cloud of smoke hung down from the ceiling but if you sat at a table it was well over your head. Kind of entertaining.
Yes, that is the way the restaurant’s name is listed. They are only in the Cleveland area, I think. Big menu, big portions.
It will be an OSHA violation if employees are exposed to a hazard. I’m not sure what employees could be exposed to in the smoke from cooking food that would be a health hazard. Likewise, if employees are exposed to increased fire risk it may be an OSHA violation.
Operating the fryer without proper ventilation probably violates more than one NFPA standard. Some of these are incorporated by reference into the OSHA standard.
The restaurant is almost assuredly in violation of built or five codes. The local fire marshal, code department, or other authority having jurisdiction will cover hazards to the building or customers. OSHA only covers employees.
I stopped back in today and whatever was wrong has been corrected and there no longer is any apparent issue. According to the person I spoke with, it was working correctly when they opened the place Monday morning so they must have gotten it fixed sometime Sunday.