SPEAKERS Christina Lewis, Heather Miley, Jason Caputo Jason Caputo Hello, and welcome. You are listening to the Alaska Department of Labor and workforce development podcast series, where you'll hear all about how the department helps Alaskan workers, job seekers, businesses and communities. I'm Jason Caputo and my guests today are Christina Lewis and Heather Miley. They're from the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Consultation and Training section. Thank you so much for joining me today. Heather Miley Thank you for having us. Christina Lewis Thank you. Jason Caputo So today we're going to be talking about, obviously, a very important topic to Alaskans and people all over the world - our current COVID-19 pandemic. And I understand you have a lot of really good, important, helpful information for us on this. So I'm really glad that you have joined us today. I'm just going to start out with a series of questions. You know, in our homes, in our offices, many of us wipe down new purchases like groceries, and we're sanitizing high-touch surfaces, areas that we come in contact with often. Are there some other strategies we can use to stop the spread of COVID-19? Heather Miley Alright, so that's a very good question. Thanks for asking that. So if you're speaking about your home, as we move into this wonderful Alaska summer, increasing your ventilation is a really great strategy. And that could be with an air purifier. Again, great Alaska summer, you can have natural ventilation by opening some windows, get some nice breeze in. For those who may be feeling ill, we definitely advise to keep the ill people separate from the healthy people. So, in your household, if you have somebody who is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or has been positively tested with COVID-19, we really recommend sequestering them in their own bedroom, them taking their own meals in their bedroom. They could, ideally, best practice would be to have them with a separate bathroom, preferably attached to the bedroom, so they're minimizing foot traffic throughout residence. They can hand-wash, shower, do all the essential duties to life in that confined space. Until they are no longer symptomatic. And then they can rejoin the rest of the household. Christina Lewis And if we're talking about the workplace, you'll want to modify your work spaces. So if you're sitting in an office environment, it's a really great idea to know change things around, make sure that we're all six or more feet apart. If you work and in a situation where six feet apart is not a possibility, maybe you have to collect cash, it's a good idea to install some type of partition, Plexiglas or something like that, that would catch any type of sneeze or cough. You do want to improve air filtration if possible, and increase the ventilation in the workplace and use natural ventilation if possible. You'll want to stagger your work shifts. So maybe you have certain people who will come in at five, other people doing that same type of job may come in at seven, and break times should be staggered as well so that we're not filling the break room personal areas with multiple people. The idea as we know by now is to minimize or reduce our occurrence by staying out of crowded spaces and having increased ventilation. Jason Caputo So you guys cover not only businesses, but we're going to cover some stuff for just everyday people. So let me switch over to those questions. A little bit lighter subject, and I'll talk about my personal issue. With all the hand sanitizing that we're doing with hand sanitizers these days, those of us with sensitive skin kind of can have difficulty with that. Do you have any recommendations on how to stay safe, sanitized, with our hands but without the skin issues of hand sanitizers? Heather Miley That's actually a really great question. So washing your hands with soap and water, that has to do with the lipids and the protein barriers of the virus just like totally disintegrating it, it's a very effective way of removing the virus from your hands. So you should still be washing your hands even if we tout "hand sanitize, hand sanitize, hand sanitize" to the point that the stores don't have enough hand sanitizer. We're having to enlist distilleries to manufacture hand sanitizer. We can't substitute completely for hand washing. You still have to hand wash. And when you're hand washing, you can go and select soaps that are for sensitive skin. But that requires a little bit of experimentation to figure out which brand is better for you. Christina Lewis Yeah, and so when you talk about sanitizing, sanitizing is really a reduction of bacteria and viruses on your hands. And the only way to really do that is if your hands are already clean. Right? So definitely hand washing. Jason Caputo Right, right, right. Makes perfect sense. So yeah, if you sanitize dirty hands, you still have dirty hands. You have to wash those hands first. Christina Lewis Yeah, yeah, exactly. And dry skin can increase your risk for picking up viruses and bacteria. So in addition for those with sensitive skin, to choosing a soap that's for sensitive skin, you also want to just get a hand moisturizer or some kind of lotion to help you. And then of course, as we've said, since the beginning of the pandemic, which we should probably carry on, you know, throughout life, is when we're out in public with unwashed hands, we avoid touching our eyes, nose and mouths with our unwashed hands. Jason Caputo Great tips. Thank you very much. So let's skip I'm going to be I'm going to be kind of going all over the place here, because you guys cover such a lot of good information. For people, now we've got the vaccines are up and running, and people are now in Alaska getting their second vaccines even, but I've heard that it's still important for people who have received their vaccines to continue wearing face coverings or masks in public. Can you talk about why? Why is that still an important thing to do? Christina Lewis Well, the vaccine, it doesn't, it doesn't stop you from getting the virus. It prepares your body for a fight. The vaccine does not prevent us from getting the virus, and it does not prevent us from spreading the virus. So if I get the virus, the vaccine may help me to not develop symptoms. Or if I'm going to develop symptoms, they may be mild rather than severe. But I can still get the virus, and I can still spread the virus. Heather Miley Something that's really powerful about viruses and bacteria is they really hijack the mechanisms that your body uses to fight an infection. So we typically don't go sneezing and coughing around in our normal day-to-day lives, and this virus is spread by these aerosolized droplets that you generate all the time. We're generating them right now by talking, but I mean, just simply breathing is enough to release these droplets into the air. And when you're talking, Im sorry, when you're coughing or when you're laughing or sneezing or whatever increased activity, that is increasing the amount of droplets spread. Its important to use those masks to prevent the spread. Christina Lewis Right. So I love that, I've always had a really healthy respect for microorganisms because I like to think of them, as you know, they're smart enough to make us cough and sneeze and rub our noses so that they can continue from generation to generation, us completely unaware. But let's say I've had the vaccine, and I don't have any symptoms, nor do a couple of people around me. But say we get together for a large dinner, and we're laughing and talking and singing, then I might not be sneezing or coughing, but I am exerting more of these droplets into the air. And if I'm asymptomatic, and somebody who maybe has an underlying condition and sitting across from me, and they don't have the vaccine, they could get sick, or they could get more ill than otherwise. Jason Caputo Those are really clear examples of why the mask is really still important for us to keep wearing. A kind of logical question that comes next: So if I have to still wear the mask and life isn't getting back to normal, should I even bother getting the vaccine? What's the use of the vaccine? Can you speak to that? Christina Lewis Well, it could be the difference, getting the vaccine could be the difference between being mildly ill and being asymptomatic. Or it could be the difference between ending up in the ICU and having to lie down for a few days with a fever and body aches. So we talk a lot about this, you know, a lot of people really want to get back to normal really quickly, and part of the problem with contracting the virus and developing symptoms of the disease is that when we end up with these situations where we have the more serious conditions, it disrupts life. Right? So now we've got someone who's hospitalized. Now they can't work. Now their employer has to hire somebody else, retrain them to do something else. And so life is, you know, it's disrupted when we end up having to be hospitalized. Whereas if we, if we all try, those of us who can, right, take the vaccine, if we all try to take it, our symptoms will be more mild, and our lives will be less disruptive, meaning I can go get my eyebrows done, you know, so I'm looking forward to life. [laughter] Heather Miley We are all looking forward to real life becoming more normal. Jason Caputo Well, that's a great example of how actually getting the vaccine does help life get back more to normal, even though you may be wearing the mask, you basically are taking whatever, it's possible that you'd be taking whatever level of illness, if you do get sick, and you had the vaccine, you're getting a much milder case, which will disrupt your life much less and maybe even be the difference between life and death - getting vaccine. So that's pretty strong reasons why the vaccine, OK, no matter, I still got to wear the mask. But heck, those are great advantages right there. There's some there's some conflicting information it seems about the benefits of cloth masks. And could you talk a little bit about what are the benefits and other information about cloth masks? Christina Lewis So the masks are face coverings. As originally promoted to the general public, they're not promoted as personal protective equipment. They should be promoted as source control, and I think that some of the confusion in the media is that we hear people, and either politically or positions of power or just the general public, speaking of these face coverings as if they are personal protective equipment, and then, you know, subsequently saying, They don't protect you from the virus. Well, but they're not personal protective equipment. So the idea is source control. So if I'm wearing one of these face coverings that are promoted to the general public, I am protecting you from my droplets as I laugh and talk while we're walking around the facility or whatever. There has been some research done, and the CDC has determined that if you're wearing two of these face coverings, you can indeed have a good level of protection. But with that, at the same time, we do want to make sure we're breathing. You don't want to choose to pass out while you're grocery shopping versus just wearing a face covering for source control. So you can do whatever's best for you. You can Wear one mask for source control and control 90% of the droplets that are coming out of your mouth as you speak. Or you can double up and actually get some level of protection as well. And then it, I guess you can say, it becomes personal protective equipment, in theory. Heather Miley Also, it's really important, as Christina mentioned, this is source control, it's meant to stop the droplets coming out. Well, they're going to come out of your mouth, but it's going to get trapped on the cloth instead of going wild wherever it wants to in the air. So it's really important that when you wear the source control, these masks, that the material is nonporous. You don't want it to be like some mesh, where they're going to go escape anyways. And you also want to make sure that its covering the entirety of your nose and your mouth. That way it's capturing all those droplets that you're spewing out all the time. Jason Caputo That's great I haven't heard that distinction before, but that made it really really clear. People are getting confused because they're thinking masks, are masks, are masks. Jumping over to another area safety the vaccine. Some people are not quite sure about the effectiveness or safety of the vaccine, and they want to postpone getting their own so that they can better understand the side effects. Do you have any recommendations for those people in the meantime, to help protect themselves? Because if they don't have the vaccine, they're at a lower level of protection than folks that do. Christina Lewis So in that situation, we would default to what we have learned and what we have been taught since the beginning of the pandemic, we would keep our social circles within our homes, do a lot of hand washing, of course, make sure we're social distancing. Lets, you know that, that someone who would choose to do that, you'll want to make sure you're always like a snowplow apart from another person, make sure you're always the distance of a bear apart from another person. Definitely wearing your face covering and really, depending on the environment that youre in, if you're in an area that does have a lot of high traffic of other human beings, you'll want to disinfect or sanitize those hand-contact surfaces more frequently. So we're going back to hand washing, social distancing, disinfection and, of course, wearing face protection. Heather Miley And this guidance will change based off of where we are in the pandemic. So as we live through this pandemic, I mean, unless you've been under a rock, which by the way, kudos to you because that's a very effective pandemic strategy. [laughter] It's like we've all experienced this pandemic, we've all experienced the ebbs and flows and the waves and the periods where things seem to be getting better. And then it turns and things aren't getting so better. So you have to constantly be in check, to make sure where the state of community spread is and follow those local guidances that Christina was mentioning. Jason Caputo Now, another element of this, of the pandemic, of the virus that we've heard about it jumping the species barrier from bats to humans. And of course, as pet lovers, especially in Alaska, what about the pets in our households? Are they at risk of contracting the virus? And is there anything people can do to ensure their pets stay safe? Heather Miley That's a question that's near and dear to my heart because I have two dogs that I specially love, and as you mentioned, great outdoors, what better place than to share it with your best furry friends. There has been some evidence that it has transmitted from humans to pet animals like cats and dogs. They're very rare. You would essentially treat your pets the same as you would small children. So right now, when it comes to masks, most places in business do not require masks for people under the age of two. Because just try to keep a mask on an infant like that would be impossible. Same with trying to keep a mask on dog. So don't worry about masking them, but keep them in the same social bubble as yourself and make sure that you're avoiding letting them run freely. So there's already a lot of leash laws here in Anchorage. So as long as you're keeping your dog on a leash, you have that peace of mind, too, that most leashes are six feet long anyways. So that's a good indicator that you're keeping your social distance from others. Christina Lewis Sometimes we hear about, oh, if we wipe things down with this, or if we, you know, wash things down with that, you want to make sure you're not using anything, you know, toxic on your little loved one. If it's not something that's made for a pet, you definitely want to avoid it. So we're not going to put hand sanitizer on our dogs, you know, we're not going to wipe them down with any type of sanitizing wipes or anything like that. So if you want to, you know, take care for your babies, or take care of your fur babies, I should say, take care of them with your already pet-approved products. Jason Caputo Great, thank you. I'm sure a lot of people value that information. We haven't heard a lot about keeping our pets safe. And of course, for many, they are important parts of our families. So I want to end up with two more general questions. Many employees and people in the general public are concerned about their personal safety. Is there any general advice you can give to folks concerned about their own personal safety? Heather Miley Well, when it comes to the general public, the State of Alaska strongly encourages the wearing of masks while outside of the home, so that could be in recreational areas like parks or trails, private businesses or indoor public spaces, such as courthouses or airplanes. Christina Lewis Yeah, and, and then, outdoors, it's a little bit different, you know, a lot of us come to Alaska, those of us who are not native here, we come up here to be able to play outside all the time. And social distancing is pretty much built into hiking and other outdoor activities. Yay! The importance there, of course, is if you are out with friends or people in your social bubble, that you stay close to your social bubble. And it is recommended that if you are working hard, you're breathing hard, that you stay more than six feet away from people who are not in your social bubble, more like 10 feet. So if we're not, if we're, you know, out there on a mountain, and we're 50 feet from another person, it's scientifically okay for someone to not be wearing a mask in that scenario. Jason Caputo And what, wanted to just finish up with, if you could talk about, if people are interested in getting more information after they listen to this, obviously, they can contact you. What are some other types of resources available with Consultation and Training? Heather Miley So just to reiterate, so Consultation and Training offers Occupational Health and Safety consultations that are both free and confidential. So these consultations could be training sessions for you and your colleagues or your staff. They could be onsite visits, where we walk through your workplace and find hazards that are specific to your place of business. Or you could be sending us questions and we could do some of the legwork on researching an answer that's appropriate to your specific concerns. We understand that trying to keep up with these constantly changing COVID guidance and advice is like trying to hit a moving target. Its really difficult, but we want to empower you with the tools and resources to create a healthy work environment for your employees and answer any questions that you may have by email or phone. This is a voluntary program that requires your initiation, so we're not going to force this on anybody. Our phone number for Consultation and Training is 1-800-656-4972. Again, that's 1-800-656-4972. You can also search our website. It would be AKOSH Consultation and Training, if you just do a Google search for that, it'll bring you to our website. Christina Lewis Excellent. But I do want to mention that there is an accountability measure built into the relationship that you choose to build with AKOSH Consultation and Training. So this is voluntary, you know, initiated by the employer, but you are obligating yourself to make any changes to anything serious may come up. Jason Caputo Right, thank you for making that clear. So they can call. If they have some questions, they're not sure whether they want to take that level of commitment, can they, they can call kind of anonymously the number and just get some general information without initiating that relationship? Christina Lewis Absolutely. They can call us or email us with any questions. We do compliance assistance as well. And we'll do the best we can to research any topic that you forward to us with the information that we have. Sometimes we get questions about reviewing written programs. So if there's something that's already written, our scope on evaluating a written plan, when we haven't seen a facility, it is limited, but we can do the best we can to help you determine whether or not at least the content and the intent is there. Heather Miley And above all, we want to build a partnership with the businesses here in Alaska, to make sure that workplaces for Alaskans are safe and healthy. Jason Caputo So thats wonderful. Thank you so much for providing that information. All the telephone numbers, the website address, we'll have that in the podcast description. So if you want to follow up to get more information you can do that. This has been the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development podcast. Thank you, Christina and Heather, for joining me today and talking about the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Consultation and Training section. And thank you, listeners, for joining us. We hope you found the show informative and that you'll join us for our next podcast.