Hi, Dr. Rob here, your biosafety advisor. Today, lets learn what you can do to prevent yourself from getting exposed and infected from bio-hazards.

There are actually several things you can do to help prevent infection, but I am only going to highlight the top four.

·  The first thing, is to be aware of the bio-hazards you might be exposed to, that could infect you, such as COVID.

·  Second, put barriers between you and those bio-hazards, to help reduce your exposure to the pathogens. Such as wearing a face mask.

· Third, don’t touch your face and wash your hands often. Particularly after touching any bio-hazards, such as handling raw meat in the kitchen, picking up after your pet, or helping someone who is sick.

·  Finally, decontaminate or disinfect surfaces in your environment where you think bio-hazards might be. For example, disinfecting the cutting board in your kitchen, the bathrooms, or your phone after lending it to someone.

Let’s start with “situational awareness”. This means to be aware of what bio-hazards are in your environment, and how you’re interacting with them. Sometimes this awareness is obvious, as you can see the objects you’re interacting with. Like picking up dog poop. But other times this is less obvious, like an invisible virus in the air you’re about to breathe in – such as COVID or influenza. So, to be more biosafe, try to be more situationally aware of the pathogens that might be in your environment.

Once you’re more aware, you can then make a better decision whether you should interact with that bio-hazard, or not. A good example of this was during the COVID pandemic, people were told to “social distance” in order to get further away from the coronavirus, that was being shed by other people. The COVID pandemic certainly made us more situationally aware that other people are biohazards. However, there’s lots of other potential sources of bio-hazards in our environment besides just people. You want to start to recognize the things that could contaminate you, like the soil in your garden, the animals you touch, the air you breath, or even the food you eat.

When you do recognize a bio-hazard and choose to interact with it, like talking to a sick person, what can you do? Your best form of defense is to put barriers between you and the bio-hazard to block it from infecting you. A good example, are the face masks people were asked to wear during the COVID pandemic. This was a barrier that helped protect people from person-to-person transmission of the virus. Based upon your own risk assessment, decide how many routes of possible transmission you should block, eyes, nose, mouth, ingestion, skin openings, and what type of barrier you should use. For example, wearing an N95 mask blocks both the nose and mouth routes of infection and helps to reduce aerosol transmission.

Barriers serve two main purposes. First, the barrier will stop or reduce the amount of bio-hazard trying to enter your body. Ideally you want to prevent all of the bio-hazard from contaminating or entering your body, but even a small reduction in the amount can be helpful in preventing an infection from starting. Second, barriers are an effective method of disposing of the contamination. Say you get blood on your gloves. You can now safely remove the gloves and easily dispose of the bio-hazard. This is why a lot of personal protective equipment is often single-use and disposable.

In addition to being situationally aware and using barriers, always remember not to touch your face and wash those hands frequently with soap and water throughout the day. It is our hands that often touch bio-hazards and become contaminated. Therefore, not contaminating your face and washing those hands often, is very important.

Finally, disinfect surfaces with an effective chemical such as bleach, but especially after the surface has been in contact with a biohazard. For example, disinfecting the cutting board after cutting up raw chicken.

Latter we’ll learn in more detail how:

Masks create barriers from facial contamination;

Respirators protect you from inhaling microorganisms;

Eye protection prevents pathogens from entering your eyes;

Gloves protect your hands, and

Protective clothes protect your body.

So to recap:

Be aware of what bio-hazards exist in your environment.
Decide whether or not it’s worth interacting with that hazard.
If you choose to interact with the hazard, put barriers between you and the hazard, to help prevent you from getting infected.
Don’t touch your face, wash your hands often and disinfect surfaces.

Thanks for watching, and remember to Be safe, Be biosafe.­­