Hi there, Dr. Robert Heckert here, your Biosafety professional. Welcome to this lesson on hazards and risk as part of the course on biosafety. In this lesson we will take a closer look at biological hazards and the risks they pose. So, let’s get started.

I’m sure you all have your own definitions and ideas of what risk is. You actually do risk assessments every day when you drive, walk across the street, eat or do online transaction. Each of these activities involves different risks, but essentially, they all boil down to two things. How likely will the activity lead to an undesirable outcome and how bad will it be. It is the same in biosafety. How likely is it that some biological agent will make you sick and how bad will it be? For example, when you smell the milk and it smells bad or off, your brain says “if I drink that I will probably get sick” so you don’t.

The most recent pandemic of COVID has made everyone really think about biological risk assessment. More than ever people are asking themselves questions about their activities and thinking about the likelihood of getting infected. But first let’s step back a bit and talk about hazards. Hazards are things that can hurt you – in this case a biological agent. You have to realize that you can’t have risk if you don’t have a hazard. Hazard and risk are NOT the same thing, but they are linked. For example, if you think about COVID, the hazard is the coronavirus and the risk is getting infected and sick. If the virus didn’t exist then there would be no risk of getting sick. If you were in a room with 10 other people and one had COVID the hazard is still the virus, but the risk on getting infected is probably low. If all 10 people were infected the hazard is still the same, but the risk is now higher. Do you see the difference?

When you think about risk you should always consider two things. What is chance to of that bad event happening (the likelihood) and how bad will it be (the consequences). Going back to our example with COVID. Risk is determined by the chances that you will become infected and then what will happen to you (how bad will it be)? When you think about this example you can see that there are many factors to consider, which is why risk assessment is difficult and variable.
You can also think of risk on a timeline. The chances of the event occurring are before the incident happens and the consequences are after the event. Most people naturally focus in on the outcome of an event because it is personal, but as you have just seen there are several factors involved – the hazard, the probability of the event occurring and then the outcome. If we use COVID again as an example. You realize that the hazard exists in your environment, which is mainly in other people with the disease. But you also need to understand that the actions you take will alter your risk of getting infected. You have the greatest control and influence over the Probability of getting infected, but little influence or control over the consequences or outcome, once infected.

Therefore, of the three parts involved in risk (hazard, probability and consequences) you have the most control over probability. This is why, it is important to do a risk assessment because it will give you some idea of what to do to protect yourself. If you think the risk is very high you might not do the activity at all. If you think the risk is very low you take no precautions and move forward with the activity. Unfortunately, life is never quite that simple. With COVID, we don’t know who is infected and who isn’t by just looking at them, therefore making your risk determination very difficult. This is just like many of the activities we do involving biological agents in our daily lives. There is some modest to high risk – if they didn’t then doctors wouldn’t have to prescribe antibiotics so often.

Now that you know more about risk , it should be obvious, that higher risk warrants more precautions to prevent you from becoming exposed, infected and sick. This is what is called risk management and should be practiced by you whenever you think there is a biological hazard. Biological hazards exist all around us, in people, animals, the soil, water, food and the air. The challenge is to recognize the hazard and take the appropriate amount of risk preventative measures. In later lessons we will talk more about recognizing hazards and what you can do about the risks they present. See you in the next lesson. Remember – be safe, be biosafe!