Protecting and Preventing

Nellie J. Brown delivers workshops on one of the decade's hottest health topics – H1N1 prevention.

As director of ILR's Workplace Health and Safety Program and a certified industrial hygienist, she trains more than 2,000 workers annually.

Firefighters, office workers, farmers, metalworkers, health care workers, cosmetologists and many others learn how to stay safe on the job through the ILR program.

When the so-called "swine flu" surfaced earlier this year, demand for ILR-led H1N1 prevention workshops followed, Brown said.

"In my workshops, people are finding the background timeline on H1N1 useful for understanding why the victims are young, healthy people," Brown said in an interview.

Trainees are also interested to know how H1N1 and the flu season progressed in the Southern Hemisphere as a predictor of how the flu season might proceed in the United States, she said. This new variant of influenza first caused illness in Mexico in March.

More than 300 people have attended Brown’s H1N1 workshops in Western New York this year.

"But, in my other training programs across New York state, I am asked questions about H1N1, regardless of what the training topic is. With so much media attention on this issue, people want to be able to find out more," she said.

Insights brought by Brown to these workshops include the sobering, the scientific and the practical.

Influenza virus can survive on surfaces for varying amounts of time, depending on environmental conditions, Brown explains in workshops.

In school settings, for example, the virus can be infectious on books and doorknobs for two to eight hours.

Virus-laden respiratory droplets from a cough or sneeze typically drop out of the air over a distance of about six feet distancing yourself from someone with respiratory symptoms can help protect you from influenza infections, Brown said.

How to prevent such droplets hopping from person to person?

Stay home until the fever is gone for at least 24 hours, Brown advises students.

Use tissues for coughs and sneezes, then throw them away and wash your hands.

If you don't carry tissues, she said, strike the "Dracula pose" when you sneeze or cough.

That's right. 

Bend your elbow.  Bury the bottom of your face in it.  Emulate Dracula hiding his vampire fangs behind his cloak-draped arm.

For more information, visit ILR's Workplace Health and Safety Program.