Is My Job Killing Me?

[alephknot]

hello,

i was wondering about airborne gluten, and what the circumstances would need to be in order to be effected by it? i work in a coffee shop where we (or they) bake all the goods.... i dont personally do any of the baking, but am around it a lot. i started a gluten free diet about 10 months ago, initially felt amazing for about two months, then started working at this coffee shop, and things slowly started going downhill. im not sure if this is a coincidence. i do have other health problems, but basically, i feel sick all the time, nobody can figure out whats wrong, and its getting terribly hopeless and frustrating. i feel like i have been overly cautious to the point where i am embarrassed about it, and now im not sure what to think... am i being a hypochondriac and overly sensitive or am i not be cautious enough??

thanks in advance for any replies.

kelly

[Gentleheart]

Here is how it was explained to me by very knowledgeable people.

When a person bakes with flour, there is a lot of "poofing" of flour into the air. It's inevitable and nearly impossible to avoid. And because most flour is so fine and lightweight, it can supposedly stay airborne for quite some time. During a normal baking event and depending upon how careful or careless the person baking happens to be, a lot of flour dust particles can end up in the air and not even be particularly noticeable, unless the sun or light happens to shine through it.

If you walk through those dust particles while breathing, some of if gets into your nasal passages where it is automatically caught by the mucous in there. Then by the natural progression of things, you will eventually swallow it. Technically, you just ate gluten. Now grant you, it's a very small amount. And maybe once wouldn't be enough to trigger anything. It depends upon how sensitive you are. But obviously, if you work in it all day long, it's just logical that it would eventually gluten you, in my opinion.

But let's say you honestly don't breathe any of it in. Let's say you wear a little white mask all day long. That's not very practical, but let's say you do it. All that flour dust that was once floating in the air, eventually ends up falling and landing on every possible surface in the place. If you happen to swipe your hand across a surface with wheat dust on it and then absentmindedly put your fingers back into your mouth, you've just been glutened again.

I don't personally think there's any way for a genuinely gluten intolerant individual to survive working in a bakery or anywhere else where gluten products are regularly being manufactured from scratch, unless they are masked at all times and super careful to never put their fingers into their mouths. Just seems like a bad idea to me.

The same principle applies in your own home. That's probably why so many people on here have eventually concluded that it's very difficult to get well in a house that still contains and bakes with gluten.

I think you can probably survive working around gluten products that are already made and don't produce a dusty residue. Then it just becomes a crumb problem that you can more easily see and avoid. But trying to steer clear of nearly invisible flour dust particles in the air is just too hard.

Sorry. That's maybe not what you wanted to hear.

[RiceGuy]

I agree with what Gentleheart said. Furthermore, just handling gluten, or minute amounts of flour dust, is still a hazard even if you didn't breath or eat all day. The average person will touch their face, to scratch an itch, rub an eye, etc. Besides the mouth, there are several orifices into which particles can enter the body, including the ears, tear ducts, and nose. It doesn't have to get into your stomach to cause a reaction either. Any contact with the inside of your body is bound to illicit an immune response. And once the antibodies are in the blood, they'll get into the intestine just like they'll get everywhere else in the circulatory system.

[ranger]

Your job may be making you sick. Did you ever here of baker's lung? It's a lung desease that bakers get from breathing in flour dust. If it's in the air, it's probably getting into your system. I allow no baking in my house (except gluten-free) and for my dh, who is not celiac, I only allow prebaked, wrapped baked goods to come in. Not even a bag of cookies! The dust from home baking stays around for 48 hours and gets everywhere. I have cooked in restaurants, but could not work in that environment now. I hope that you can find a different job. Good luck and happy St Pats day.

[Pegleg84]

Heh. This is interesting. I've been working as a waitress in a pizza restaurant for the past 8 months. There's always flour somewhere, and it is likely all through the air as well. I just started going gluten free a couple weeks ago (and feeling better), and have joked that eating way too much pizza made the celiac kick in. Maybe I wasn't completely wrong about that? Thankfully, I won't be working there much longer so hopefully it won't make me (more) sick, but coupld it be possible that (this is total speculation) overexposure to gluten, either eaten or in the environment, could trigger celiac symptoms, or make them worse?

just an idea.

I hope you can figure out a way from getting sick at work, or find something else. Who knew that flour could be a job hazard.

[violet2004]

I'll print this out for my family.

I don't know why, but it's so hard to explain cross-contamination to them, and I am becoming more and more sensitive so it's a major concern.

We went on a family trip over the holidays and rented a house, and I felt crummy most days even though I ate "gluten-free." BUT, everyone else was flinging loaves of bread around the kitchen making sandwiches and toast everyday, which I suspect was the culprit.

(And I was careful to wipe down the counters and sink, and re-wash my own dishes and silverware before cooking and eating, too...)