Donald Weekes

Occupational safety & health professional in Canada, 46 years experience. Looking in from Canada to the US, seeing the world from a different perspective.

[Donald Weekes @donweek]

AIHA Board of Directors Approve Position Statement on VOC's for LEED IAQ sampling http://t.co/KC0tH7oVl9

[Dean Blundell🇨🇦 @ItsDeanBlundell]

🇨🇦 THREAD: Mark Carney just flipped the script on Donald Trump.
“If we don’t get a deal in 30 days, the tariffs go up. Not down.”
– PM Mark Carney, June 19, 2025
What it means—and why it’s a game-changer for Canada 🧵

1/ 👇
https://t.co/KXeNPR4NRX

[Linda_ADAO @Linda_ADAO]

As a #mesothelioma widow - we have to fight for public health, justice, and human rights -- OVER politics. I never imagined I'd hear an administration try to 'Make Asbestos Great Again. It's not just outrageous—it's deadly. FULL STOP

[Ian Black @BlacksWeather]

A Heat Warning has just been issued for Ottawa . #ONStorm

[US Department of the Interior @Interior]

Happy 108th birthday to the @NatlParkService!

For more than a century, the passionate and dedicated people of the National Park Service have cared for our country’s natural, cultural and historic treasures for future generations to enjoy.

Photo by Yueru Hao

[Eric Topol @EricTopol]

The new significant wave. It's hard to believe the we're well into our 5th year of this virus and not taking the requisite steps to gain control.
Including updates on the new boosters and #LongCovid.
In Ground Truths (link found in my profile)

[Rob Williams @RobTheHockeyGuy]

THREE gold medals for Summer McIntosh 🥇🥇🥇

Great come-from-behind win by Canada’s Olympic star

[Sharon Astyk @SharonAstyk]

Folks are asking how to prepare for bird flu. Here's the first part of my work on this. This is going to be a three part essay, focusing first on what you can do BEFORE things happen, second on what things might be like when H5N1 begins to go human to human...

[Knauf North America @KnaufNA]

Half of our children are exposed to poor #IAQ in schools for up to 1,000 hours every year. We can create healthier learning environments with improved ventilation, low-emitting materials and proper HVAC system maintenance. Read on ➡️ https://t.co/qCilZPsc5L

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

PMC COVID-19 Forecast, Aug 2, 2024 (U.S.)

Expect 2 more weeks of very high and stable transmission before the summer wave accelerates.

Currently at an estimated 850,000 daily infections, 1 in 56 Americans contagious, 43,000 resulting Long COVID cases/day.

Deep Dive:
Over the next two weeks, we should see very high and stable transmission, before transmission increases rapidly. Note that transmission estimates are down marginally – of no practical impact – relative to last week. One might be tempted to consider that the summer wave is subsiding. That might be a 5-10% probability.

This is where the model gets interesting. The forecasts are derived from a combination of recent patterns in transmission (levels, change, rate of change, rate of rate of change) as well as historical medians for that date. If only using the recent patterns, a decline in the wave would be reasonable.

However, the historic data capture all of that useful information on variation in human behavior (back to school, end of summer vacations, flights, Labor Day) that focusing only on recent patterns would miss. Because behavioral patterns also fuel viral evolution, these historical data also get, to some extent, at the idea of viral evolution of new variants, which we do not track directly in the model.

When considering the forecast, view it two ways. One, based on current trends and historic data, this is what we would expect. Two, if human behavior defied historic trends, we could see something much different, such as a wave subsiding if everyone were more cautious than average this year, or unfortunately something slightly worse than predicted due to the decline in public health guidance on mitigation.

According to the composite forecasting model, that means hovering between 700,000 to 1,050,000 infections/day over the next month. Transmission is very high, and we may reach a later-summer peak of 1.1-1.3 daily infections around September 11.

Although the forecast is for steady transmission over the next two weeks, the forecast is volatile due to quality issues with incoming data.

Schools, medical facilities, and businesses should now escalate precautions and prepare for the disruption of a high percentage of the population getting sick through the remainder of 2024.

[JWeiland @JPWeiland]

August 2nd update:

Estimated daily infections rise to 900,000 as KP.3.1.1 nears dominance with some speed.

🔸900,000 new infections/day
🔸1 in every 37 people currently infected
🔸59% higher than 12 month avg.

[Morgan J. Freeman @mjfree]

Kamala Harris and her father Donald in 1965, less than a year after she turned Black.

[Richard Corsi, PhD, PE (Texas) @CorsIAQ]

Goodbye, Hawaii. Mahalo.

Thanks for a great #IndoorAir2024 conference and for the shaved ice and remote beaches thereafter.

[Joseph Allen @j_g_allen]

New awesome Harvard Healthy Buildings team member!

Dr. Park is a Postdoctoral Fellow whose research focuses on building science, indoor air quality, low-cost particle sensors, residential ventilation systems, indoor chemistry, and the control of infectious diseases.

[Richard Corsi, PhD, PE (Texas) @CorsIAQ]

Moment of Zen.

North shore. Oahu

[The British Occupational Hygiene Society @BOHSworld]

Occupational hygienists have the skills to identify, assess and find solutions to control workplace health hazards and thereby manage any associated risk to health.

These may be chemical, physical, biological or ergonomic and can be present in the workplace in many forms.

[Kevin Jones @SafetyOz]

Jason van Schie’s psychosocial session was always going to be a highlight and there will be more #OHS in the SafetyAtWorkBlog prior to a major psych conference next month but look at this Hierarchy of Control based on popularity. This is why OHS change is tough. #aihsnatconf24

[The British Occupational Hygiene Society @BOHSworld]

Occupational hygiene is the discipline of protecting worker health by controlling workplace hazards that can cause harm. It also helps in maintaining worker well-being and safeguarding the community at large.

[Joseph Allen @j_g_allen]

If you missed ⁦@fastlerner⁩’s story on forever chemicals, don’t miss it today. A story we’ll be talking about…well…forever.
“That’s weird, Hansen thought. Why would a chemical produced by 3M show up in people who had never worked for the company?” https://t.co/oJLTdFvjNq

[The British Occupational Hygiene Society @BOHSworld]

As there are so many airborne pollutants to which a construction worker may be exposed, it is vitally important that COSHH assessments are completed for all activities to identify the significant risks and appropriate control measures.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

Today marks 70 years since the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in America’s schools. 

Let’s honor the memory of the civil rights leaders, families, and children who took extraordinary risks in order to make our schools – and ultimately our country – more fair and more free. And at a time when our public schools are growing more segregated, let’s remember that our work isn’t done until every child can get an education worthy of their promise.