Basic Rules Of Kitchen Safety.docx

Basic Rules of Kitchen Safety Cooking is fun, but kitchen safety is a priority. There are many pieces of equipment and environmental hazards that can be extremely dangerous. Sharp objects like knives, open fire by the oven, electrical appliances, and even bacteria around the kitchen. Observing basic rules of kitchen safety is a good habit to develop. Always pay attention to what you’re doing in the kitchen because one slip can cause serious injury or accidents. To prevent serious injuries or accidents: always pay attention to what you’re doing, adopt a plan for kitchen cleanliness, and have necessary safety equipment at your disposal. It’s also important to be aware of who is in the space – for example, children should never be left alone in the kitchen!      

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Store knives in a wooden block or in a drawer. Make sure the knives are out of the reach of children. Follow these knife safety tips to prevent injury. Never cook in loose clothes and keep long hair tied back. You don’t want anything accidentally catching fire (not to mention hair ending up in the food!). Never cook while wearing dangling jewelry. A bracelet can get tangled around pot handles. Keep potholders nearby and use them! Be careful not to leave them near an open flame. Turn pot handles away from the front of the stove. Children can’t grab them, and adults can’t bump into them if they’re out of the way. Don’t let temperature-sensitive foods sit out in the kitchen. Raw meat, fish, and certain dairy products can spoil quickly, so refrigerate or freeze them right away. Wipe up spills immediately. Keep the floor dry so that no one slips and falls. Separate raw meat and poultry from other items whenever you use or store them. This precaution avoids cross-contamination of harmful bacteria from one food to another. Wash your hands before handling food and after handling meat or poultry. Hands can be a virtual freight train of bacteria. Get a fire extinguisher for your kitchen. This device may not do much for your cherries jubilee, but it can avert a disaster. You should do your best to prevent a kitchen fire, but sometimes it’s out of your hands. So, make sure you know how to use the extinguisher before a fire breaks out. You can’t waste any time reading the directions amidst the flames.

28 BASIC KITCHEN SAFETY TIPS 1. Make sure all wires, cords and plugs on your appliances are not frayed and that the plugs have 3-prong grounded connections. This would include coffee makers, toasters, blenders, microwaves, mixers, etc. 2. Don’t use extension cords. You can obtain a junction box that has built-in GFI (ground fault interrupters). This will allow you extra plug in space and the GFI will kick in if there is a power shortage. Helps avoid water/electrical shock accidents. 3. Get rid of any appliance that is broken or damaged. New ones are very inexpensive these days. If a new one would bust your budget, try garage and tag sales (just make sure you’re not buying somebody else’s broken appliance). 4. Put a childproof lock not only on the cabinets with your medicines and cleaning supplies, but also your oven. 5. Don’t leave the kitchen with pots & pans cooking on the stove. Make sure to turn off burners as soon as you take the pot off. 6. Avoid wearing inappropriate clothing while cooking. That means loose sleeves and sweaters. 7. Keep dish towels, pot holders and oven mitts away from the stove. 8. Keep matches and lighters in high places where curious little hands can’t reach them. 9. If using candles in the kitchen, don’t leave the room (or home) while they’re burning. Make sure they are in a safe place and are in flame proof containers. 10. Check furniture, curtains, dish towels, etc. to be sure they are not blocking heaters or vents. 11. Keep a fire extinguisher in or near the kitchen, but not near the stove or the heater. 12. In case of a grease fire, salt and/or baking soda will help if you do not have a fire extinguisher. 13. Keep emergency numbers handy – 911 is easy to remember, but phone numbers to Poison Control might take longer. 14. Scalding is one of the most common injuries in the kitchen. Make sure to turn pot handles away from the front of the stove and away from little curious hands. 15. Scalding can occur from hot steam as well. Be careful when lifting lids from hot food (including opening that hot bag of microwave popcorn)! 16. Handling Knives: (a) Always cut away from your body when using a knife. It can slip and cut you, (b) Always use a cutting board, (c) Protect your counter tops, (d) Keep blades sharp, (e) Keep knives clean (including handle) – slippery handles can cause injuries, (f) Don’t put knives in a sink of soapy water – they may not be seen and accidents can occur, (g) Wash and dry carefully keeping sharp edge away from your hands, (h) Always lay them flat, never on the back or edge, (i) Don’t attempt to catch a knife as it falls – better it hits the floor than cut your hand, (j) Wash knives with warm soapy water after each use. 17. Be sure appliances are unplugged before touching sharp edges (blenders, can openers, mixers, etc.). 18. Never stick a fork in a toaster to retrieve trapped toast – you may get shocking results. 19. Always be sure the blender is unplugged before touching the blades.

20. Be careful about sharp edges: scissors, broken glass, potato peeler, etc. 21. Never ever, ever leave cooking foods unattended – not even for a minute. 22. Casualness causes casualties – don’t answer or talk on the phone while cooking – you can be distracted and injuries can result. 23. Clean up spills immediately – wet floors are slippery when wet. 24. Keep the kitchen floor clear or toys and other items. 25. Be certain that walking areas are always clear of toys and other items. 26. Keep young children out of the kitchen while cooking. 27. Always use a step-stool to reach high places. 28. Store cleaning supplies and all chemicals in a safe place. Use safety latches.

What is biodiversity? The source document for this Digest states: 

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Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems. Biodiversity forms the foundation of the vast array of ecosystem services that critically contribute to human well-being. Biodiversity is important in human-managed as well as natural ecosystems. Decisions humans make that influence biodiversity affect the well-being of themselves and others.

Biodiversity is the foundation of ecosystem services to which human wellbeing is intimately linked. No feature of Earth is more complex, dynamic, and varied than the layer of living organisms that occupy its surfaces and its seas, and no feature is experiencing more dramatic change at the hands of humans than this extraordinary, singularly unique feature of Earth. This layer of living organisms—the biosphere—through the collective metabolic activities of its innumerable plants, animals, and microbes physically and chemically unites the atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere into one environmental system within which millions of species, including humans, have thrived. Breathable air, potable water, fertile soils, productive lands, bountiful seas, the equitable climate of Earth’s recent history, and other ecosystem services (see Box 1.1 and Key Question 2) are manifestations of the workings of life. It follows that large-scale human influences over this biota have tremendous impacts on human well-being. It also follows that the nature of these impacts, good or bad, is within the power of humans to influence (CF2). Defining Biodiversity Biodiversity is defined as “the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.” The importance of this definition is that it draws attention to the many dimensions of biodiversity. It explicitly recognizes that every biota can be characterized by its taxonomic, ecological, and genetic diversity and that the way these dimensions of diversity vary over space and time is a key feature of biodiversity. Thus only a multidimensional assessment of biodiversity can provide insights into the relationship between changes in biodiversity and changes in ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services (CF2). Biodiversity includes all ecosystems—managed or unmanaged. Sometimes biodiversity is presumed to be a relevant feature of only unmanaged ecosystems, such as wildlands, nature preserves, or national parks. This is incorrect. Managed systems—

be they plantations, farms, croplands, aquaculture sites, rangelands, or even urban parks and urban ecosystems—have their own biodiversity. Given that cultivated systems alone now account for more than 24% of Earth’s terrestrial surface, it is critical that any decision concerning biodiversity or ecosystem services address the maintenance of biodiversity in these largely anthropogenic systems (C26.1). Measuring Biodiversity: Species Richness and Indicators In spite of many tools and data sources, biodiversity remains difficult to quantify precisely. But precise answers are seldom needed to devise an effective understanding of where biodiversity is, how it is changing over space and time, the drivers responsible for such change, the consequences of such change for ecosystem services and human well-being, and the response options available. Ideally, to assess the conditions and trends of biodiversity either globally or sub-globally, it is necessary to measure the abundance of all organisms over space and time, using taxonomy (such as the number of species), functional traits (for example, the ecological type such as nitrogen-fixing plants like legumes versus nonnitrogen-fixing plants), and the interactions among species that affect their dynamics and function (predation, parasitism, competition, and facilitation such as pollination, for instance, and how strongly such interactions affect ecosystems). Even more important would be to estimate turnover of biodiversity, not just point estimates in space or time. Currently, it is not possible to do this with much accuracy because the data are lacking. Even for the taxonomic component of biodiversity, where information is the best, considerable uncertainty remains about the true extent and changes in taxonomic diversity (C4). There are many measures of biodiversity; species richness (the number of species in a given area) represents a single but important metric that is valuable as the common currency of the diversity of life—but it must be integrated with other metrics to fully capture biodiversity. Because the multidimensionality of biodiversity poses formidable challenges to its measurement, a variety of surrogate or proxy measures are often used. These include the species richness of specific taxa, the number of distinct plant functional types (such as grasses, forbs, bushes, or trees), or the diversity of distinct gene sequences in a sample of microbial DNA taken from the soil. Species- or other taxon-based measures of biodiversity, however, rarely capture key attributes such as variability, function, quantity, and distribution—all of which provide insight into the roles of biodiversity. (See Box 1.2) Ecological indicators are scientific constructs that use quantitative data to measure aspects of biodiversity, ecosystem condition, services, or drivers of change, but no single ecological indicator captures all the dimensions of biodiversity (C2.2.4). (See Box 1.3) Ecological indicators form a critical component of monitoring, assessment, and decision-making and are designed to communicate information quickly and easily to policy-makers. In a similar manner, economic indicators such as GDP are highly influential and well understood by decision-makers. Some

environmental indicators, such as global mean temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentrations, are becoming widely accepted as measures of anthropogenic effects on global climate. Ecological indicators are founded on much the same principles and therefore carry with them similar pros and cons (C2.2.4). (See Box 1.4)."

The Importance of Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the amount of variety of life on Earth. It is the number of different species of plants, animals, and microorganisms. It includes organisms from Earth’s vastly different ecosystems, including deserts, rainforests, coral reefs, grasslands, tundra, and polar ice caps. Our biodiversity is very important to the well-being of our planet. Most cultures, at least at some time, have recognized the importance of conserving natural resources. Many still do, but many do not. Healthy ecosystems and rich biodiversity:           

Increase ecosystem productivity; each species in an ecosystem has a specific niche—a role to play. Support a larger number of plant species and, therefore, a greater variety of crops. Protect freshwater resources. Promote soils formation and protection. Provide for nutrient storage and recycling. Aid in breaking down pollutants. Contribute to climate stability. Speed recovery from natural disasters. Provide more food resources. Provide more medicinal resources and pharmaceutical drugs. Offer environments for recreation and tourism.

How do we replace lost biodiversity? Our environments and the species that live in them need a diverse population of genes. More genetic defects are caused by inbreeding. With reduced diversity in the gene pool, the chance for extinction increases. All species, including humans, are adversely affected by the loss of species diversity.