AROMATHERAPY

The Factory

The factory environment can be debilitating for a miscellany of reasons. Injury, dust, dirt and grease are obvious hazards to health but there are also the hidden effects of radiation and electrical activity and the vibrational energies produced by the presence of crystals. Working with chemicals is dangerous because even if the short-term effects are known and deemed harmless, the long-term effects are rarely known.

In addition, it is the combinations of chemicals that so often prove dangerous, and even if a chemical has been given safety clearance, its effect in conjunction with the 100,000 possible others has not. Monotony and boredom create their own problems, as does the pressure of being in the same areas as many other people.

Adequate ventilation and dust-extraction systems are vital in the modern factory and everyone should be vigilant to ensure that they are being properly maintained to work efficiently. This is most especially the case when working with asbestos or one of the new hard metals - cobalt and titanium, for example.

Every factory floor should be cleaned with industrial vacuum cleaners rather than brushes, and throughout the day rather than just once, at the end of the shift. Make sure your health and safety union representative knows which chemicals are dangerous and which are not -

People working with wood preservatives, for example should avoid those that contain lindane (a nerve posion) TBT or PCP (Pentachlorophenol). Get as much information as you can from the organisation listed in the appendix about the chemicals and metals you work with. 

It is known that better protected working conditions should be provided for many categories of workers, but those in the precision tool, aero-plane and weapon industries should take special note if they don't want to become one of those who suffer from the latest industrial hazard, hard metal disease.  

• Most factory floors are too big to utilize the usual room methods when using essential oils but even if the size of your working space seems daunting, the essential oils can be applied to the corner of a tissue or handkerchief put in your pocket so that the corner hangs out and allows the aroma to clear your own body space. What you need on the factory floor is something to help you relax but at the same time enhance concentration. 
• This isn't a contradiction. Think how impossible it is to concentrate when you are uptight - it is relaxation which facilitates concentration. (This relaxed and concentrated state is rather like driving a car along a familiar road, and it is at this time that we often get our flashes of inspiration.)
• Lavender and grapefruit are excellent oils on the factory floor for this reason. They can be used singly, with slightly different effects, or in an equal mix. Geranium makes a good addition. All these oils increase blood circulation and oxygen supply and calm nerves.
• If you work in an oily, greasy environment the best oil to use is cedarwood, which breaks these molecules down and clears the air. If noise and pollution is the problem, cypress is the best remedy because it seems to work as a shock-absorber, calming down the nervous system. The noise ceases to jar and you come to ignore it.