Going back to my time as a foodie there was nothing that irritated me more than finding limitations on water temperature in kitchens. I presume that you make reference to the outlets have thermostatic mixing valves on them? Hot water is generally a necessary 'evil' to have in kitchens in order to enable effective washing up. Food safety generally requires the ability to create water that is hotter than TMV's are normally set to i.e. around 40 degrees C. There are ways around this I realise e.g. dishwashers etc. However I recall having and eventually winning arguments with CQC inspectors and the like because they blindly followed rules about TMV's without applying a bit of sense to the environment they were being installed into. However, there is a conflict here if you have clients at risk of scalding from using them. But this will be one for you to decide over where the compromise is - how hot can your water get and do your clients genuinely not respond to a hot water temperature stimuli? Are your kitchen facilities still able to meet the necessary food safety standards if you TMV every outlet?

As a general rule skin should not be exposed to water temperatures in excess of 40 deg. C except for extremely brief periods. The reason is that the high temperature affects the lamellar layer in the stratum corneum and thus renders the skin less effective as a barrier. It can thus predispose to the development of irritant damage, sensitisation and penetration to contribute to systemic effects. In fact, the ideal temperature for hand washing has been shown to be 32 deg. C. If hands have to be placed into water hotter than 40 deg C then protective gloves with an underlying insulating glove should be worn. When gloves are removed I would recommend rinsing in lukewarm to cold water then applying a moisturising lotion (note 'lotion' not 'cream'). Chris

The washing up sink shouldn't have a control on it, the temperature is required to ensure that bacteria etc are killed while washing up. It is a while since I did food hygiene but the temperature for effective washing up was 80 degrees plus - yes a H&S risk for hands etc so a sanitiser or sterilser should be used when rinsing - hence 2 sinks required for washing up. I can see no reason not to put a control on the sink for washing food as I cannot think of a time when you would require hot water for food prep.

This topic reminds me of an incident during the mid-1970s when I was in a group of young adults working on a Government Job Creation Scheme and based at a large outdoor activities centre. Although our meals were provided by staff using the centre's commercial kitchen, the washing up was done by a rota of teams from our group. Items were washed in a large sink after which they were loaded onto hand-held racks for a dunk in a steriliser - a deep metal sink containing water which was kept very hot by an electric element in its base. After each rack was lifted out and placed on a drainer surface, the items were hot and therefore dried rapidly. This method of drying was both notably quicker and more hygienic than using tea towels. One evening the team included an enthusiastic newcomer who, unaware of the nature of the steriliser sink, unwittingly plunged both arms into its water. I can still remember the scream he emitted as he rapidly retracted his arms from the water. Fortunately, several of us knew first aid and promptly started filling another sink with cold water into which the young man's scalded arms were placed and kept immersed for some 15 minutes or more until the redness and pain fully subsided. As no subsequent medical attention was needed I guess that it was fortunate that the incident just involved i) water at a temperature slightly below boiling point and ii) for a very brief duration, and therefore helped to limit the severity and depth of skin scalding. The outcome would surely have been far worse if the scalding contact time been longer and/or involved a more clingy and hotter medium such as oil or fat. In retrospect the incident provided a useful lesson for our group about the benefit of promptly trying to treat scalds (and burns) with plenty of cold water. It perhaps also helped to sharpen my own perceptions about safety matters - a few months before seeing an enticing advert for people to train as inspectors with some new organisation called HSE !