We are pleased to announce that HazTek Director of Technical Services Kevin J. McMahon, CIH, has collaborated with other members of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) Construction Committee to develop a COVID-19 guidance document for construction health. This new AIHA guidance publication titled “Focus on Construction Health: COVID-19” provides construction employers a practical plan for protecting workers from COVID-19 and offers key information on how the virus spreads and how exposure occurs.

As a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, McMahon has been involved with the AIHA Construction Committee for over ten years. In 2016, he presented “Remembering the Anthrax Letters 15 Years Later – What We Experienced & What We Learned” for the New Jersey AIHA in Scotch Plains, NJ. McMahon’s presentation was based on his experience working as the Technical Director during the 2001 cleanup of anthrax at the Hamilton Post Office in Hamilton, New Jersey. He also acted as a moderator for a panel on “Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) Criteria for New Construction” during the 2017 American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Expo in Seattle, Washington.

McMahon has over 40 years of experience in environmental and occupational health and safety, having worked in corporate, government, and consulting roles. He has given numerous presentations on infectious diseases, including COVID-19, H5N1, and anthrax. More recently, McMahon participated in the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) webinar on COVID-19 where he and HazTek Client Services Manager Herb Strong discussed best practices for protecting employees and preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Since the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease attributed to it — COVID-19 — present a major challenge for construction worker health protection, the “Focus on Construction Health: COVID-19” publication provides seven steps to establishing a comprehensive plan to manage COVID-19 hazards, including links to other helpful resources. Job Safety Analyses (JSAs) are discussed as an important tool to identify, evaluate, and control different types of exposure factors that could make certain tasks more of a risk than others.

The AIHA represents professionals and experts dedicated to identifying, evaluating, reducing, controlling, and preventing occupational health hazards. The new “Focus on Construction Health: COVID-19” publication is intended to complement the AIHA’s existing “Focus Four for Health” guidance which addresses four other important construction health hazards.

This new guidance publication has just been released by the AIHA and is available as a free download: Focus on Construction Health: COVID-19

HazTek’s COVID-19 services — including consulting, written programs, and training — are led by our team of specialists, including Kevin McMahon. To learn more about the COVID-19 services that HazTek provides, please call us at 888-842-9835.