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safety

The Workplace Incident Report (WIR)

The Workplace Incident Report (WIR)

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 […]

Bad Submarine Design

Bad Submarine Design

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 […]

See COVID, say COVID

See COVID, say COVID

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 […]

Being heard while wearing a mask

Being heard while wearing a mask

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 […]

Update to the Four Motions to Protect Staff, Students and Faculty

Update to the Four Motions to Protect Staff, Students and Faculty

[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 […]

COVID Questions for YorkU

COVID Questions for YorkU

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 […]

Flying Blind into January: Update on YorkU Air Quality [Oct 2021]

Flying Blind into January: Update on YorkU Air Quality [Oct 2021]

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 […]