Among kitchen employees, where breaks are often few and far between, this is a definite risk. Lasky remembers one job where he was sandwiched between a burner stove that could get white hot and four other ovens, including one that reached 500 degrees. But heat exhaustion may be the least of employees' worries. In states that allow smoking in restaurants, you may cough your way through clouds of second-hand smoke, which increases the risk of lung cancer. Lifting heavy boxes can strain your back.
Slippery floors can lead to nasty spills.
Cuts, burns, and falls are the most common injuries, according to the National Restaurant Association. This translates to about one in five restaurant cooks with a burn injury, according to the April 1998 issue of Restaurants and Institutions. Lasky, for one, still carries a scar from the time a sous-chef accidentally knocked his hand down on a sauti pan full of hot oil. He watched in dismay as his skin of his finger bubbled and popped, but couldn't leave the stove, because meals had to be cooked. He pulled a glove over his injured hand and went on working.