Hi there, Dr. Rob here, your biosafety advisor. Have you ever been sick or gotten COVID? Have you known someone who died from an infection or who has suffered from an illness? Of course, we’ve all gotten sick at one point. But, did you know that many of these illnesses could have been avoided or prevented? With just a little knowledge and good biosafety habits, you CAN protect yourself and your loved ones from harmful illnesses.

 
It all starts with recognizing that there are lots of biohazards in life that can, and will infect you if you let them. There are many sources of biohazards in life, including animals, soil, water, food and even the air we breathe, but the main source of infection to us is actually from other people. So, pay attention to what you do on a daily basis, how you do them, and if there is a potential for a biohazard to be transmitted to you from your activities. For example, talking to a coworker in close proximity or using the public washroom. COVID was a great example of how we got infected during interactions with other people. Think about where your greatest chance of getting infected might be on an average day and how bad it could be if you did get infected. This is called risk assessment. Once you have determined that there may be a high risk of getting infected you should either avoid that activity or protect yourself.

 
So how do you get infected? Well, there are four main ways a biohazard can enter your body. These are ingestion by the things we eat and drink; inhalation in the air that we breathe; contamination through the eyes, nose, and mouth; and through breaks in the skin. Depending upon the biohazard, some routes will be more efficient than others. For example, biohazards that cause gastrointestinal illness will mainly enter through the mouth. So, to better protect yourself, block these routes of transmission by using barriers, like gloves to protect your hands; a mask to protect your nose and mouth; googles or safety glasses to protect your eyes; a respirator to protect your lungs and clothing to protect your body. You may choose to wear one or all of these to protect yourself. For example, during the COVID pandemic, we came to realize this virus was mainly transmitted from person to person, by contamination of the face and possibly by air, therefore people wore face masks. Of course, don’t eat or drink things that you think are contaminated or uncooked and don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth with contaminated hands. Get into the habit of washing your hands thoroughly throughout the day as often as you think is needed. Biosafety is all about minimizing your chance of getting sick.

 
Illness occurs through a three-step process starting with exposure, then infection and finally disease. However, not all exposures lead to infection and not all infections lead to disease. Once you recognize the biohazards in your environment you can limit your exposure to them. If you can’t avoid the biohazard you can minimize the risk by using barriers to limit your exposure and chance of infection. The pandemic of COVID really showed the world how important these concepts are to help keep ourselves safe. You won’t achieve 100% safety, but you can do a lot to reduce the risk of getting exposed, infected and sick. Take your health seriously and think biosafety the next time you go out, so you can Be safe – Be biosafe!