Dry eyes for line cooks and chefs

Line cooks and chefs get dry, stinging eyes from radiant heat off grills and flattops, hood fans pulling air across their faces, smoke and onion fumes, and long shifts with few breaks. Angle your body away from direct heat, step off the line for a minute when you can, keep your hands clean before touching your eyes, and store any eye drops away from the line, where heat can push the bottle past its labeled range.

What a busy line does to your eyes

A commercial kitchen stacks up several things that pull moisture off the eye at once. Radiant heat from a charbroiler, salamander or six-burner range warms the air right in front of your face. The hood above the line moves a huge volume of that air upward and past you. Steam from pasta water and dish pits rises in bursts, then the air dries again. You’re watching tickets and pans at the same time, so you blink less.

Irritation is a separate problem. Smoke from the grill, sizzling oil, chili in a hot wok and raw onion all sting. Watering eyes from fumes aren’t the same as dry eyes, but after a few hours, eyes that have been both irritated and dried out feel raw. Our wider guide to dry eyes in a hot workplace covers heat on the job generally; this one is about the line.

Setting up your station

You can’t move the grill, but small changes in how you stand and work help over a double:

• Work at a slight angle to the heat source, so radiant heat hits your shoulder and side more than your face.
• Step back when you open a salamander, combi oven or fryer basket; the first blast of heat and steam is the worst.
• Lift lids away from you, so steam rises on the far side.
• On the sauté station, keep your face out of the line of a flaming pan; the heat and smoke rise straight up.
• If a fan blows across the pass, ask whether it can be angled so it isn’t hitting the cooks’ faces.
• Clean the hood filters on schedule; grease-clogged hoods pull less smoke away from the line.

Onions, chilies and smoke

Prep work brings its own irritants. Cutting a case of onions releases fumes that sting the eyes for the whole prep shift. Working near a vent or exhaust, keeping your face back from the board and taking a short break halfway through the case all help.

Chili is a different problem: capsaicin on your fingers burns if it reaches your eyes. Wear gloves when handling hot peppers, take them off before touching your face, and wash your hands with soap even after gloves. If something splashes into your eye, flush it with clean water at the eyewash station or sink right away, and see a doctor if pain or blurring doesn’t settle. A lubricating drop isn’t a rinse.

Breaks during a long shift

Kitchen breaks are short and unpredictable, but even a minute helps. When you step off the line:

• Go somewhere cooler, like the walk-in doorway, the back dock or the alley, for a breath of air that isn’t coming off a grill.
• Close your eyes for a few seconds and blink fully several times.
• Drink water; cooks sweat a lot and often drink too little during a rush.
• Rinse your face with cool water if it’s allowed, which also clears smoke and grease residue off your eyelids.

Clean hands before eye drops

A cook’s hands touch raw protein, garlic, citrus, chili and grease in a single hour. Before using an eye drop, wash your hands with soap at the hand sink, dry them on a clean paper towel and only then pick up the bottle. Quell’s label has a handling line worth following on every use: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination. In a kitchen, that means never setting the open bottle down on a cutting board, the pass or a steel counter.

Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. Its Uses line reads: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. The directions: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. For a cook, that might mean one drop before the shift, one at family meal and one after you clock out. Don’t put drops in while you’re on the line or handling food.

Keep the bottle off the line

A kitchen is one of the worst places to store a bottle of eye drops. The carton’s storage line reads: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). The shelf above a range, the space near a fryer or a hot apron pocket can all run well past 86°F during service. Instead:

• Keep the bottle in your locker, bag or jacket in the break area.
• If there’s no locker, a closed bag on a shelf in the office or dry storage away from ovens works.
• Don’t keep it in the walk-in, where food safety rules usually keep personal items out anyway.
• Bring it home at the end of the night instead of leaving it in a hot car.

Before each use, glance at the bottle. The label’s “Do not use” line reads: If this product changes color. The full panel is on our Drug Facts page, including the egg and bird allergy caution, which is worth knowing about for anyone in a kitchen full of eggs.

Days off and recovery

Many cooks notice their eyes feel better after two days away from the line. If yours don’t, that tells you something besides the kitchen may be going on. On days off, keep up the habits that help: full blinks during screen time, vents off your face at home and sunglasses outdoors. Our guide on how to use eye drops as directed walks through getting each drop in cleanly.

When to see a doctor

A burn, splash, cut or something stuck in the eye needs urgent care, not a lubricating drop. Eyes that stay dry, sore or blurry even on days off also deserve a visit to an eye doctor. Per the label: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours.