Brown School Public Health Protocol Plan

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HEALTH AND SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR LEARNING AND WORKING ON CAMPUS: ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES According to occupational safety and health guidelines, the best way to control a hazard is to systematically remove it from the environment. In the case of COVID-19, environmental measures play a critical role in augmenting personal protective measures to minimize spread and infection.

Hierarchy of Controls Controls in the physical environment and safe work practices help to prevent the transmission of COVID19 among faculty, staff and students. The primary objectives of workplace controls are to:   

Minimize risk by reducing the duration, frequency, and intensity of exposure in the workplace Promote preventative safety practices that lower the risk of infection Protect high-risk populations

Hierarchy of controls is a concept used by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as a framework for identifying controls for potentially harmful workplace conditions. These principles are useful for assessing the effectiveness of controls for COVID-19 and for understanding the range of impacts those measures can have on decreasing the likelihood of transmission. NIOSH hierarchy of controls, prioritizing the most effective measurements available: 

 

Elimination – physically remove the hazard; eliminate working conditions that threaten safety, health and well-being Substitution – replace a given hazard with something less hazardous Engineering controls – redesign the work environment; isolate people from a hazard Administrative controls – change the way people work, includes changes in policies or procedures to reduce or minimize hazard exposure such as limiting occupancy in the workplace Personal Protective Equipment – use of personal protective equipment (PPE) worn by individuals to reduce the effects of exposure to a hazard

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