Union campaigns to get asthma kits in kitchens following death of 19-year-old chef

Unichef is campaigning for emergency asthma kits to be a requirement in commercial kitchens following the death of 19-year-old Lauren Reid last year.

In February 2020, Reid, who worked as a chef at restaurant Gin71 in Glasgow, suffered a severe asthma attack during her shift and was without her inhaler. She suffered a cardiac arrest that led to massive brain damage and passed away later that week.

In 2014, an amendment was made to the Human Medicines Act allowing the emergency use of Salbutamol without a prescription on school premises in the UK. Reid's mother, Elaine Cunningham, and Unichef are campaigning for a similar exemption to apply to commercial food premises due to the environmental ‘triggers' that are common in kitchen spaces, such as flour, fumes, heat, dust, odours and a lack of fresh air.

A petition has already reached 33,000 signatures and the campaign is hoping to have the non-prescribed storage of Salbutamol inhalers in commercial kitchens enshrined in law.

According to Asthma UK, 5.4 million people in the UK are receiving treatment for asthma and on average, three people die from an asthma attack in the UK every day.

Unichef is backed by Darjeeling Express restaurateur Asma Khan, owner of the Art School restaurant in Liverpool Paul Askew and TV chef Alan Coxon.

Executive director Brian McElderry has also been urging associations such as Michelin and the AA to remove accreditation from businesses where abuse is proven to improve working conditions in the hospitality industry.

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