Tower Workers Must be Protected, Maybe from Zika Eventually

August 18, 2016

August 25, 2016 —

By Don Bishop

Executive Editor
Associate Publisher
AGL Magazine

The National Safety Council, together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), recently held a webinar on how workforces can be protected from the Zika virus.

Zika 101 for Employers and Employees featured Dr. Satish Pillai, deputy incident manager for the Center for Disease Control’s Zika Response Team, and Jill Shugart, assistant program coordinator for emergency preparedness and response at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

I wondered when this kind of attention would arise…

For any outdoor worker, including tower workers, employers have some responsibility when it comes to on-the-job exposure to diseases. That’s what OSHA is all about — a safe workplace.

Zika, chikagunya and dengue fever have come to the United States, in one way or another, maybe most severely so far in Puerto Rico, and next in order, Florida.

As reports of infections increase — if they do — I would have to believe that outdoor workers of all kinds would become increasingly worried.

Mosquito-transmitted diseases may never become eradicated, and it seems they are on the increase, if the news stories are an indication. A story published a week or two ago about the rise of malaria in Venezuela said the country’s government services are coming to a grinding halt with Venezuela’s return to poverty. Through government efforts extending for decades, malaria had almost been eradicated, and now it’s coming back from remote areas and having a resurgence in cities.

Employers of tower workers must take steps to protect them from hazards on the job, including environmental hazards, and maybe exposure to mosquitoes is going to become an increasingly important point of consideration.

To see the webinar go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpZ3amJLapE&feature=youtu.be