Top OSHA Official Meets With Faculty at School of Public Health

ST. LOUIS--The top official at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) visited Saint Louis University School of Public Health yesterday to discuss how to protect ambulance drivers and other emergency workers from new infectious diseases such as SARS.

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health John Henshaw was invited to the school by faculty from the school's division of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Center for the Study of Bioterrorism and Emerging Infections.

"We had some ideas we wanted to share about making sure workers are protected from emerging new infections like SARS, as well as from possible bioterrorist threats, and we wanted to hear what he had to say on the subject," said associate professor Roger Lewis.

They discussed possible solutions such as using a special light to identify dangerous pathogens on ambulance surfaces, and implementing new sterilization techniques.

Also attending the meeting were management from the St. Louis Fire Department Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, regional labor officials and others.

Saint Louis University School of Public Health is one of only 34 fully accredited schools of public health in the United States and the nation's only School of Public Health sponsored by a Jesuit university. It offers masters degrees (MPH, MHA) and doctoral programs (Ph.D.) in six public health disciplines and joint degrees with the Schools of Allied Health, Business, Law, Medicine, Nursing and Social Service. It is home to seven nationally recognized research centers and laboratories with funding sources that include the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the American Cancer Society, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the World Health Organization.