Top Risks You Can Avoid While Handling Your Office’s Water Cooler
December 7th, 2015
Water dispensers play a unique role in the office environment as they offer the best solution for easy access to cool water, keeping everyone hydrated all day long just at the touch of a button. Just like other appliances, it is essential to clean and maintain the water dispenser. Taking good care of the water dispenser helps reduce technical issues that may attract costly repairs. Improper maintenance of the water dispenser not only damages it but also exposes users to potential harm. Here are a few tips that can help you minimize risks associated with use of water dispenser.
Avoiding burn injuries
Most water dispensers usually have a hot water spigot with a switch that helps prevent burn injuries. Although the hot water spigot significantly reduces burn injuries, there are still quite a number of burn injuries that result from hot water dispensers mostly because of careless handling of the hot water. For instance, when you try to fill hot water in a bottle with a small opening, you are likely to get burn injuries. Since the bottle has a small opening, water can easily miss it and end up on your hand. To avoid getting burn injuries when using a bottle with a small opening, you can put a cup or mug on the dip tray and then pour water.
Bottle lifting technique
It is possible to injure your back when using the water dispenser. Sometimes you may go to the water dispenser for water only to realize there is no water. This leaves you with an option of loading the water dispenser with a full bottle of water. People often go wrong when lifting the large bottle of water. Lifting the large bottle using an improper technique can injure your back.
Essentially, you have to stick to proper lifting techniques for lifting the large bottle. Before lifting the large bottle, keep your back straight and go down while squatting. Tilt the bottle to one side and hold it firmly from the brim using your hand. With your back straight, stand up on your legs and put the bottle into the dispenser.
Germs
More often than not, the water spigot of a dispenser is wet. Moreover, many people touch the dispenser frequently on a daily basis. This can easily lead to germ build-up on the water spigot, which can easily find their way into your body through drinking water. In that case, it is important to keep dispensers and water filtration systems in the office clean.
Slip injuries
Serious dispenser injuries can also result from falls and slips. When water accumulates at the foot of the dispenser, it is easy for anyone to slip and fall. Water accumulation is usually as a result of internal leaks in the dispenser. If there is any leakage in the dispenser, the issue should be resolved as soon as possible to avoid slip and fall injuries. You should keep an eye on the drip tray. An overflowing drip also causes water accumulation at the foot of the dispenser.
