no masks? consider yourself closed for business

on wednesday, maple leaf foods announced it was temporarily closing the doors of its brampton, ontario poultry plant for 14 days after three employees tested positive for covid-19.the move came after coronavirus cases temporarily closed an olymel pork plant in quebec, and harmony beef in alberta in late march. over the past week, meat plants across the u.s. — jbs usa, national beef packing co., cargill inc. and aurora packing co. — closed their doors after employees tested positive for the virus.the closures highlight the danger the virus has on shutting down — or severely affecting — canada’s supply chain. it also has businesses rethinking their operations, and realizing the value in providing masks to employees to help prevent infection and ensure operations aren’t disrupted.just over a week ago, the public health agency of canada began recommending canadians wear surgical or cloth masks in public, saving n95 respirators for frontline healthcare workers. the agency has not yet recommended employees wear masks at work. “this is a new world order,” says dr. om malik, ceo at ecoh management inc., an environmental and occupational health consulting firm, and former director of health and safety at ontario’s ministry of labour.as of last wednesday, the u.s. began recommending masks for certain businesses and the cdc now mandates all essential businesses in the food and healthcare sectors to wear masks. it has also advised all other essential businesses to test mask-wearing to determine whether they interfere with workflow.maple leaf says it will be following the cdc guidelines. “when our brampton plant begins operating again after we complete our investigation there, all employees will be required to wear masks or face shields consistent with new centers for disease control (cdc) recommendations,” says janet riley, vice president, communications and public affairs with maple leaf foods.“the nature of the work at brampton did not require masks, but we will use them going forward,” she says.in canada, where mask-wearing by the public had been aggressively discouraged by health authorities for months, support for wearing masks at work is growing.“we are not out of danger until a vaccine comes along,” says malik. “if the transmission of the virus is largely from saliva in droplets or aerosols, if nothing else, we can stop the spread. masks provide a physical barrier.”malik says that mask-wearing in workplaces should be part of a concerted plan to reduce transmission, one that includes frequent hand-washing, physical distancing, and more frequent cleaning and sanitization of surfaces. “all these things are required to break the chain of infection,” he says.given that scientists believe one in four cases of covid-19 cases are asymptomatic, wearing masks can play a key role in reducing spread, says marianne levitsky, an adjunct professor with the dalla lana school of public health’s s occupational and environmental health and the global health divisions.but some physicians feel that whether businesses should have their employees wear masks will be dependent on the type of work they do. “it completely depends on the business and the type of product they are producing, as well as the degree of contact between employees,” says dr. samir gupta, a clinician-scientist at the li ka shing knowledge institute of st. michael’s hospital in toronto.john murphy, adjunct professor at the dalla lana school of public health, university of toronto, says there’s little science to support mask-wearing in the workplace. “there is not any empirical evidence that i have seen showing that the use any type of mask in a community or non-health care workplace setting will reduce transmission.”he says that wearing masks could be beneficial in settings where people work in very close proximity, or in areas where the prevalence of covid-19 is higher. “it might be a measure that could have small theoretical benefit, but at this point i would not be inclined to consider it necessary,” he says.and education should be a big part of any workplace mask rollout, says gupta. “if businesses do require employees to wear masks, they should ensure that they are not taking masks away from frontline healthcare workers — and they also require proper education of employees around how to use these without paradoxically increasing risk,” he says.levitsky agrees. she feels education around mask safety, such as proper usage and removal, guidance on changing disposable masks daily,  and how to handle reusable masks will be critical in ensuring proper use. “people have to know how to clean these masks,” she says.despite the efforts to increase protection in workplaces, malik acknowledges that masks aren’t a panacea for employers — just a tool in a larger arsenal — and that the risk of transmission can never be completely eliminated. “a risk-free workplace is a utopia,” he says. “there are risks and our job is to manage those risks so that they are at the lowest level possible.”