Woman critical after drinking chemical-laced tea

a reply to: Unity_99

I know of a particular incident in a chain of restaurants where a worker was caught placing drugs in food. The owner found out, fired him and filed charges. Too many teenagers think it's funny to use bodily fluids or insert things in food that could cause patrons to become sick or be life threatening. It's been done way too many times... the Domino's case is a prime example.

Really, I think all kitchens in restaurants should be required to have security cameras trained on the kitchen area. If kitchen workers knew that their every move was being recorded, maybe it would prevent them from even considering doing such disgusting things.

originally posted by: WeRpeons

Really, I think all kitchens in restaurants should be required to have security cameras trained on the kitchen area. If kitchen workers knew that their every move was being recorded, maybe it would prevent them from even considering doing such disgusting things.

This is a very good idea. After all, it could prevent health hazards. I find it depressing that people need to know they're being recorded to stop putting others in danger, but if that's the way things need to be for us to be a little bit safer, then so be it...

a reply to: ketsuko

If the job paid a living wage a competent person would be willing to fill it. If our economy were built on the concept of providing quality goods and services in exchange for a fair price from those who have done likewise and can therefore afford it, there would be a right way of doing things laid out that makes things like this far less likely to happen.

Unfortunately the underlying concept of our economy is jump into the shark tank and get yours however you can. Going for quality is an add-on option that a business might pursue if conditions are right, but the starting point is "1. what will people give me money for 2. what are the absolutely necessary steps to make the exchange happen 3. How can I accomplish those steps and quickly and inexpensively as possible."

Product, service, safety, and social responsibility are just obstacles that may apply- no different than paying your taxes. The only part of the business model that gets any real thought is receiving a piece of green paper. No wonder our economy is broken and our quality of life is rotting just beneath the plastic exterior coating that gets replaced every couple of years.

I'm sure many people see this as an occasion to call for more regulation, more liability, more government, and a few others probably see it as proof that big business is good and that mom and pop are going broke because they are incompetent, but neither of those really gets at it IMHO. I think the real deal here is that as a society we have taken our eye off the ball- we're thinking too much about the facilitating machinery of commerce (money) and not enough about what we actually want to GET for the money. The employer, the employee, the consumer- any one of them could prevent a situation like this if they were looking critically at the finished product rather than on the convenience of money- that you just plop down 5 bucks and somebody works for you for an hour, you plop down 2 bucks and you get a cup of tea- and just taking it for granted that the money wouldn't be flowing if something was really wrong.

I don't even in my own messy kitchen. I'm really scared if I eat out. Add in sum plague scares and, I'm once again glad to be a homebody.

a reply to: LukeDAP

It actually is a great idea. I bet the first fast food chain to livestream its back line over the in restraunt wifi and then put out a commercial suggesting they're the only ones who couldn't possibly adulterate your meal would immediately gain significant share of the market.

There is of course always a second third and fourth edge to the sword- how would you like to be the cute one in the kitchen and know that every teenage boy of any age or gender in the place is transfixed on his tablet just waiting for you to bend over and pick up another box of french fries? How would you like to be the owner when a dissatisfied employee looks right into the camera and blows a snot rocket on the floor (the floor if you're lucky). And how would you like to be the new worker who ends up YouTube famous because you screwed something up in comic fashion?

Of course the security cameras don't HAVE to be accessible to anyone but management, but 1. that's still not fool-proof privacywise 2. management isn't watching the cameras anyway in any place I've ever worked. It was my job to go back through old footage and try to find the incidents the boss heard about for a while, and more often than you'd think it turned out that the relevant file had somehow been misplaced by the time management had a complaint in hand.

a reply to: snarky412

Just imagine how much more qualified the employees of 'Stinky Pete's BBQ Pit' would suddenly become if the minimum wage was raised to $15 an hour.

/endsarcasm




I posted, but then I caught this gem:

originally posted by: The Vagabond
a reply to: ketsuko

If the job paid a living wage a competent person would be willing to fill it.

And the incompetent would fill what role in this fantasy land of yours?

a reply to: Lipton
And your argument is what? We keep things like this possible because "its his rice bowl" ala The Sand Pebbles?

They can sit on the couch on a modest dole being completely undesirable to the opposite sex until they eventually come to the role of evolutionary dead end. In the mean time if you're not a welfare person, maybe they can dress in costumes and keep children from crying in the DMV waiting room.

a reply to: The Vagabond

Lack of privacy is the only thing I can think of that'd be bad about this, to be honest. If this became a thing and it was done right, such as having a company that deals with the security/cameras, it could be good. If the archive was stored somewhere else other than the establishment, then someone wouldn't, in theory, be able to substitute the file if they had done something wrong and wanted to hide it, nor would it be possible for someone to access these videos to watch/stalk a worker or to put them on YT.

Of course, then the workers' privacy would be all up to the people of said company. Which isn't a very comforting thought. Speaking for myself, I'd take lack of privacy over the risk of an annoyed/unfocused worker putting something on someone's food, but I do agree that it's not a perfect solution.

originally posted by: snarky412
a reply to: ignorant_ape


Found an article that stated it was the 'powder' form

Also, after an inspection, they found all chemicals properly labeled and separated from food items

So either the employee wasn't paying attention, not to mention the fact that if they don't know the difference in appearance between sugar and a powder, well, they must not cook much at home....just saying
2 different textures --granular vs. powder--

--OR--

Someone did some quick changes at the business before inspectors got there

Either way, they should be able to see on the video

The chemical, also known as sodium hydroxide, comes in both liquid and powder form. The one the worker added to the tea was a powder, Guymon said.

The restaurant has remained open since the incident, said Jeff Oaks, Food Protection Bureau manager at the Salt Lake County Health Department. His office inspected the establishment Monday and found all chemicals properly labeled and separated from food items.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Regardless, what a horrific tragedy for this family
She's 67 years old and still in critical condition

Still trying to keep an eye out for the latest on her condition......
So sad

If that is the case and everything was properly labeled. Then their is no way this was an accident. No way in my mind. Now this is only my opinion. But if everything was labeled how can you ever, ever mix up the two. Even if for some reason you can not read there are symbols on the labels too.

a reply to: LukeDAP

I tend to agree, although I would be eager to see the system developed to better respect the workers, I would feel that the cost-benefit ratio is already there to move on this.

a reply to: snarky412

confusing the two products - takes a special sort of idiocy

Or lack of english, they don't require people to learn English to get a drivers license here anymore or to pass the test for citizenship, many hired for restaurants cannot read eaglish.

originally posted by: The Vagabond

I would be eager to see the system developed to better respect the workers

I can't talk about how things are done in the US since I've never even been there (yet), but here in Brazil, we still have a long way to go when it comes to workers' rights. I don't want to sound too pessimist, but we many never see a society that actually respects all types of workers, which is definitely a problem and, of course, leads to situations like this one (I'm not saying that the guy did it on purpose, just talking about similar occurrences when it's actually done on purpose).

Unfortunately, the whole camera thing would probably be invasive and there'd be no concern over the regular worker who's never done anything wrong. And on an even more unfortunate note, I can't think of a better way to protect people who eat at restaurants/diners/etc.

Anyway, I don't want to derail the thread too much. Long story short, our society is messed up. And when we try to fix it, it continues messed up in another way.

infusion of oak bark stop internal bleeding from the mouth to forgive ass infusion of pomegranate peels cure ulcers

a reply to: ignorant_ape

You realise that a commercial kitchen doesn't buy products in nice 1kg retail bags. They buy in bulk packaging, which often has minimal labelling on.

So showing a retail bag of sugar with full labelling against a commercial bucket of something with minimal labelling is a bit disingenuous and misleading.

Tate & Lyle 25kg sacks, for commercial and restaurant use are essentially just brown sacks wit the Tate & Lyle logo on, with the word sugar under it. Its still pretty distinctive, but its NOT the same as the retail packaging you showed here.

Please, compare like with like in future. Anything else is misleading.

Yea, that woman's liver will be fried also, hate to say, she will be lucky if she survives. Maybe luckier if she doesn't as she will have many problem to suffer threw.

A guy went to work in a restaurant in the back, his mother told him he would own the place someday
Well ten years later he's still washing dishes, and say hey ten years and I still don't own restaurant.

It's because he's a Moron. That's what this is about. A Moron.

a reply to: OOOOOO


so here is a follow up ... there are pics and video

www.nydailynews.com...

this caught my eye " A similar incident occurred five weeks before when the toxic chemical inside the sugar was added to the drink and an employee was burned, the lawyer said. He questions why the materials were not discarded then."


how can district attorney refused to file charges, the family is filing a lawsuit and I don't blame them......that is so negligent....

a reply to: research100
I'm glad she made it. Ty for updating this thread.

I hope she gets paid. This goes way past negligence.

a reply to: research100

Thanks for updating...

My husband and I were just talking about Jan Harding today at lunch, being as I like sweet tea and we wondered about her medical recovery

Found this:

Harding, 67, spent nearly two weeks in a Salt Lake City hospital.

She has been out of the hospital for weeks but still hasn't regained her sense of taste, her lawyer said.

She continues to see doctors about the damage to her esophagus.

She also still suffers some emotional distress.

"It's been challenging for her to go out and eat," Guymon said. "There's still some lingering anxiety."

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Wonder if she'll ever regain her sense of taste?
What a horrible ordeal to endure, especially at the age of 67
I don't blame her for not wanting to go out and eat...hell yeah that was/is emotionally stressful!!

Maybe they can get Dickey's to change the way they operate in the food prep area to keep accidents like this from happening again

Something needs to change regardless
And their employees need to pay better attention to what they are doing