Food Security and Food Assistance Programs, Research Paper Example

Food safety is a critical element to the health and safety of any society or organization.  As the head of a citizen task force designed to make recommendations for health and food safety activities for local restaurants, it is clear that a strong enforcement program by the local health department will be more effective in the long run than an employee training program.  An enforcement program effectively takes the majority of responsibility for food safety out of the hands of employees and managers and places it directly in the hands of the local government.  The government will monitor and evaluate the food safety of every service restaurant in the area and all organizations will be held responsible for maintaining a high level of safety.  “Many employers are directing attention to workers themselves as the problem rather than work restructuring and hazardous job conditions” (Frederick & Lessin, 2000, par. 2).  Employees can take shortcuts or falsify health documents to satisfy food safety codes.  Training does not always lead to efficient food safety behaviors by employees.

In dealing with a second serious health concern such as the West Nile Virus, the health department is positioned with a very difficult responsibility of educating and enforcing behaviors to protect the public.  Based on research that has shown that the public must be educated about the effectiveness, or rather ineffectiveness, of many insect repellant sprays, the health department must begin an active campaign to recommend the usage of insect repellant candles and bug zapper electronics instead of relying solely on sprays.  Sprays have been found to be highly ineffective in keeping mosquitoes and other insects repelled; instead, these other resources are much more conducive to protecting the public (Herrington, 2003).  The second recommendation for the public is to suggest that the public removes all environmental factors that attract mosquitoes in order to reduce the total mosquito population.  These sources involve wet or damp areas such as liquids in trash containers, clogged drains, clogged gutters or any other standing water surface areas that may attract mosquitoes to gather and breed (TuscoEMA.org).  These suggestions are cost-effective to the limited resources of the local health department and provide the community with the necessary education to eliminate improper health behaviors.

References

Frederick, J., & Lessin, N. (2000). Blame the worker: the rise of behavioral-based safety programs. Multinational Monitor.

Gardner, B., & Rausser, G. (Ed.). (2002). Food security and food assistance programs. Ithaa, NY: Elsevier Science.

Herrington, J.E. (2000). Pre-west nile virus outbreak: perceptions and practices to prevent mosquito bites and viral encephalitis in the united states. Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, 3(4), 157-173.

TuscoEMA.org. Help us control the mosquito population. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.tuscoema.org/pdf/Mosquitoes%20and%20how%20to%20control%20them%20link.pdf