Update! (August 28, 2023) The issue of password-protecting the Workplace Incident Report (WIR), form appears to have been resolved. I raised the issue at the May and August HSEC meetings and, now, the WIR form is available out in the public. This will make it more useful for community members to use to report health […]
The Titan submarine was officially declared destroyed yesterday, and everyone aboard it dead, not far from the wreck of the Titanic. In the days, months and years to come, scientists, engineers and journalists will comb through documents and videos to determine what went wrong and who should be blamed for the tragedy. A number of […]
It's Fall 2022 and the masks are off. Well, officially, masking is a "personal choice". Leadership has dropped the COVID ball and is hoping that nobody is going to pick it up again. So what's left to do? Continue to mask, provide alternatives for everyone that don't require in-person gathering (classes, labs, meetings), get vaccinated […]
The following are a set of preliminary tests I did to determine relative speech sound performance while wearing a mask. I'm particularly interested in the context of mask-wearing in a classroom, but this could be helpful in many other workplaces. I tested a number of masks in my dining room. Audio levels were measured using […]
York University's EECS department has an Aranet4 CO2 sensor available for borrowing. Go to the ground floor of the Lassonde Engineering Building, and go to the sign-out desk in the PRISM computer lab at the south-west corner of the building (near the hallway that leads to the Steacie Library). The location is highlighted in light […]
[March 20, 2022 update] A version of the N95 motion was brought before YorkU Senate in January 2022 by Senator Patrick Phillips. It appears to have passed but has not led to subsidized distribution of N95s on campus. [Feb 2, 2022 update] The first motion (Recommendation for N95s) resulted in a recommendation email to all […]
I'm submitting the following four motions to my department's monthly meeting to see if we can set ourselves up for a safer return to campus. There are four motions: A recommendation for wearing N95 Funding for N95s A request for CO2 sensors A request for portable air purifiers (HEPA) Feel free to reuse and/or adapt, […]
October 31, 2021 (Updated Nov. 5, 2021) [Update Nov 5, 2021] In response to my questions I have received a letter from the Provost of the University, Prof. Lisa Philipps. Only the academic freedom question was addressed. The administration of York University has announced a return to face-to-face teaching in January 2021, with changes in […]
It's Oct 8, 2021. Last week I heard from my Vice Dean of the plan to go back to in-person teaching in January, 2022.[1] I believe that this is potentially a premature decision as York University appears to have ignored deficiencies in its measures to fight COVID. These include a vaccination documentation system that may […]
The CS Viamonde school board provided a response about the status of ventilation and air filtering at the La Mosaïque elementary school in the east end of Toronto on August 24, 2021. The letter is included at the bottom of this blog post Executive Summary Air filtering is vital to keep our kids safe in […]