The world has been inundated with messages about personal protective equipment and controls for SARs‐CoV‐2, commonly referred to as COVID‐19. As with chemical and/or biological agents, the appropriate control measures vary. Dr. Alan Rossner will present on risk management approaches for the work environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic is new with many uncertainties, crisis management concepts and tools can be applied to identify effective solutions. What are the risks? How do we assess the risks? How do we control the risk? Risk= Hazard+Outrage (Sandman,1990), yet engage the people and outrage goes down. As we move toward businesses opening and many people across the nation and world start to return to work, we need a systematic approach to minimize worker exposure and disease. I will discuss the use of a risk matrix and the use of control banding techniques to assess risk and identify control measures. With all risk assessments, the uncertainties must be evaluated for the selected control measures. We will discuss the challenge of making decisions with data gaps and still having conficience that the correct control measures (gloves, respirators, isolation booths, improved ventilation) were implemented.
Dr. Alan Rossner is Director of Environmental Health Science and Environmental Science & Policy undergraduate programs at Clarkson University. He is also Associate Director of Clarkson’s Institute for a Sustainable Environment. Prior to coming to Clarkson University in 1995, he spent 10 years working as an industrial hygienist with the government, The Boeing Company (5 years) and as an industrial hygiene consultant (3 years) in the Northwest. His teaching and research interests are in human exposure to hazardous biological and chemical agents. He is board certified in the Comprehensive Practice of Industrial Hygiene by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene and served on the Board of Directors of ACGIH for six years.
