Wyo. May Ban Facial Piercings in Eateries

Yahoo! News / AP ^ | March 14, 2005 | CURTIS B. WACKERLE

[Stoat]

Wyo. May Ban Facial Piercings in Eateries

 

Mon Mar 14, 7:09 PM ET

By CURTIS B. WACKERLE, Associated Press Writer

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - As if the hair in your salad wasn't bad enough, a city health inspector said there had been "several cases" of tongue rings and other facial jewelry found in the food in the city's restaurants.

It was enough to persuade the Governor's Food Safety Council to recommend banning facial jewelry for restaurant workers who prepare food — perhaps becoming the first state in the country to do so.

But despite his testimony, when contacted by The Associated Press, Jon Cecil of Cheyenne Health Department couldn't cite a single documented case of facial jewelry falling into a restaurant dish.

That's not what he said in a Jan. 25 hearing before the Food Safety Council.

"We've had several cases of old ladies finding tongue rings and rings and whatnot in their food," Cecil testified. "We actually had a lady at one of our finer restaurants in town and ... she found a tongue ring."

The council voted 5-3 to recommend the changes, which could go into effect as early as this spring.

Cecil said he learned of the incident from the restaurant, not from the customer, so no formal complaint was ever filed. He would not release the name of the restaurant.

In approving the regulation, the food safety council said nose, tongue and lip piercings were health hazards because a piercing that found its way into food could spread a staph infection.

Dr. John Townes, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at Oregon Health Sciences University, said nose rings could transmit staph bacteria — the inner nose is one of the most common sites for staph to colonize — especially if the wearer had a habit of touching the nose ring with his hands.

But Townes said a nose ring would have to sit in a plate of food for hours before a sufficient population of bacteria built up to spread the disease. Townes said he knew of no documented cases of foodborne illness resulting from facial piercings.

"I think it would be vastly more important for them to wash their hands," he said.

[Stoat]

A gal at the local Blockbuster had me completely mesmerized by her infected nose piercing last week. I couldn't stop looking at it. I was like Austin Powers when he saw the guy with the huge mole on his face for the first time.

Is this her?

 

[Stoat]

Nice pic. I recall from some long-ago travelogue that if the women who have added all of those rings to their necks and elongated them so much ever try to remove them, that they can die because the cervical vertebrae have been unnaturally altered and have insufficient strength to support the head if the rings are removed.

They are doomed to spend their lives this way, but they don't mind because in their culture they think that it's 'beautiful'.

[Izzy Dunne]

You want fries with that?

[Stoat]

You want fries with that?

Oh Lawwwd......

That was so utterly awful I HAVE to post a 'counterbalancing' pic; hope you don't mind  :-)

(this is a pic of an Iraqi gal around the time of the elections there.  I recall the caption being that she was dreaming about her future, which is a bright one now)

[Route101]

And....would you like a nose ring with those fries?...

[Route101]

Whoa!....did she drop some metal in my fries???

[Blogatron]

A face like that could provide excellent traction in the snow.

[Erasmus]

Wyo. May Ban Facial Piercings in Eateries

Does that mean I'll have to prove I can handle a knife and a fork without stabbing myself?

[MeekOneGOP]

Oh, I can just imagine they're doing damage to themselves with this weird body torture.

..... but they don't mind because in their culture they think that it's 'beautiful'.

LOL! Lovely, just lovely! haha!

[Oztrich Boy]

Wyo. May Ban Facial Piercings in Eateries

Eightly so. They should be done in Tattoo parlours and other body-art places.