Staples in the work place, eating hazard

CEBU, Philippines - Hard hats are good protection for falling or swinging objects in the workplace.  That is why most companies, specially those in the contruction industry, never run short of providing their workers with them along with the famous steel toe shoes and insulated gloves, as part of their SAFETY FIRST program.  However, unknown to all, there is another area in every company’s workplace that also needs 100% attention.  I’m talking about the desk where paper works are done. 

Everyday paper works are piled up one after the other on top of so many desks in so many offices around the world.  As has been done since, we use staplers to categorize files into departments, probitionary, regular, for approval, for signature of so and so, for the bank, for interview, hired, resigned, for mineral water, and for the newspaper guy.  Likewise, we also use the same staplers to remove the staples from these files especially when we make new files or when we give one copy to the president, a copy to the HR, and another copy to the employee. 

Unfortunately, as we carefully remove the staple from the file, we carelessly leave it or throw it where it’s not supposed to be.  Most of our busy time, we just leave them on top of our desks or office table.  We don’t see them because nobody wants to buy or keep them.  Even how melodramatic you are you don’t want to keep used staples for sentimental value.  Besides, they’re almost too tiny to be seen.

So the used staples — open, closed, twisted or broken — are lying untouched on top of desks.  Bell rings for lunch.  You reluctantly opt not to go to the canteen or to a nearby carenderia because you had to finish something really quick.  You devour your lunch right in the middle of  paper piles and scattered staple wires. 

Your officemates came back and found you vomiting heavily.  After awhile, you start to feel pain in your stomach.  Good if it’s just plain food poisoning because we have medicines for that.  But what if what you are experiencing are the symptoms Dr. Grzegorz Stanko mentioned in www.healthcare.com?

The doctor says, if there’s nausea, vomiting, or stomach pain, you have to go to the E.R. as fast as you can.  Ordinarily, small objects accidentally taken in, will just come out with the stool.  But yours could be a case of staple swallowing.  Well, even if you are not a doctor, common sense would tell you that maybe  it’s an open staple and it’s stuck somewhere along the soft lining of the intestine. 

Run to the nearest hospital for an x-ray because the good Dr. Stanko says that staple loves to lodge at the junction where the small and the big intestines meet, which in no time will obstruct bowel movement and may slash more damage to the intestinal wall.  If you are the imaginative type, you can add internal bleeding to the whole cocktail of mental pressure and suffering you have succumbed to, so far.

If the staple will cling inside, the doctor is left with no other choice but to open you up.  Think about the long needle that’s used to give you anesthetics before they cut you open.  Think about the money.  Think about your family, friends, and officemates who will be waiting outside the operating room.  Think about the paranoia that you will experience before you go into that black realm of uncertainty waiting just around the bend. 

You are old enough to ensure your own safety.  If you are beating a deadline or simply in a hurry, clean up your office desk first before unpacking your lunch.  There’s nothing wrong if you eat your food where you work.  But food is good when eaten with care.  Happy eating, everyone! (FREEMAN)