Public Service Announcement

April 2, 2008 by missheather
Filed under: Area 51, Greenpoint Magic

Once in a very blue moon I learn something so disturbing I feel compelled to pass it along because it is in the public’s interest. Before I continue I want to make it clear that it is not the purpose of this post to rumor monger. I will recount the facts I have been provided and you can draw your own conclusions.

A month ago a good friend of mine who worked in the deli at the above depicted establishment started getting red spots on her skin. These coincided roughly with a new vendor providing the deli’s chicken. Thinking it was merely due to one of the many things that lurk in uncooked chicken she took extra care to wipe down the counters, utensils, etc. It was all to no avail: the red spots persisted.

Concerned, my friend brought this to her supervisor’s attention. She also pointed out that she was not the only person afflicted with these lesions: five out of seven of her coworkers displayed similar symptoms. Her input was summarily dismissed. After some cajoling on my part my friend finally visited a physician. His prognosis was as follows:

SCABIES

Needless to say my friend underwent treatment and quickly found another job. As I said at the beginning of this post, these are the facts as I know them. I will leave it to you, dear readers, to take heed or dismiss this cautionary tale as you see fit.

Miss Heather

P.S.: Lest any of you are wondering what healing scabies lesions look like. Here you go!

Tags:

Comments

6 Comments on Public Service Announcement

gradeck on Wed, 2nd Apr 2008 2:47 pm

I must take issue with your assertion about the post and it not being your intention to rumor-monger.

From ye olde American Heritage Dictionary:
ruÂ·mor, n. Unverified information received from another; hearsay

The key information in your post is, of course “coincided roughly;” “these are the facts as I know them,” and plenty of additional hearsay.

Here, on the blog of the person who is the Queen of reporting violations to 311 —
-A supervisor is mentioned, but what about the store manager? Were they informed?
-What about the corporate parent?
-The NYC Department of Consumer Affairs?
-The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission?
-*Any* oversight entity or person?

Now, do I happen to believe the information as generally presented in this post? Yes, I do. But it is still absolutely nothing more than a rumor.

missheather on Wed, 2nd Apr 2008 5:10 pm

You will be happy to know this establishment was inspected recently. Every single department had violations. The produce section was the worst offender.

al oof on Wed, 2nd Apr 2008 10:17 pm

scabies make bed bugs look like moisturizer.

nobugs on Thu, 3rd Apr 2008 12:36 am

I know I have bed bugs on the brain, but I have to warn you: it’s a lot more likely that people working in a Greenpoint store have been bitten by bed bugs at work, than gotten scabies. Scabies requires close contact (“skin to skin” is a phrase often mentioned). It COULD be gotten from towels, but otherwise would be tricky to spread at work.

Bed bugs, however, could be in a chair in the breakroom, or in the room itself. And before you say, “the doctor said,” well, the doctor tells lots of people with bed bugs (who don’t see them) that they have scabies. Many, many people are treated for scabies, and later it is found they really did not have scabies, but bed bugs. Unless a skin scraping for scabies was positive, I would say bed bugs are likely.

I have a hunch I am now officially your grossest commenter. Sorry. :-p

nobugs on Thu, 3rd Apr 2008 12:37 am

the photo, also, could be bed bug bites. They look different on everyone. This is just a sample:
http://bedbugger.com/bed-bug-bites-photos/

I’ve seen some like those in the pic too.

al oof on Thu, 3rd Apr 2008 4:04 am

bed bugs might be more likely to be transmitted, but they are also much less of an actual problem. they’re basically mosquitoes.

but anyway, a doctor told the friend they have scabies, so it doesn’t really matter whether it is unlikely to get scabies at work, they have scabies.

there are also lots of reasons you might have skin to skin contact with coworkers, and it’s likely their clothing is stored together. the risk of getting scabies not skin to skin is less likely than skin to skin, but it’s not insignificant. anyone i’ve known who had it was told to clean all of their clothes and bedding, and the number of punk house scabie scares i’ve heard about has always involved fear of bedding.

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!

You must be logged in to post a comment.