HIRA learning: identifying hazards, assessing risk

Simultaneous workshops in separate Dockside rooms on Thursday afternoon gave delegates an opportunity to apply their understanding of Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment to real and hypothetical situations.

In the session entitled Public Health Planning for Mass Gathering Events – Lessons from the G8 and G20, presenters including Brian Schwartz, Jessica Harris and Charles Gardner shared their experiences identifying hazards and assessing risk related to last year’s G8 and G20 Summits. They then introduced a hypothetical international summer sporting event to be held in multiple locations in the Toronto area and asked participants to map out the perceived hazards and levels of risk on a risk matrix.

In the session Don’t Hazard a Guess: Learning How to Develop a Hazard Identification Risk Assessment (HIRA) and a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) for Your Organization, Judyth Gulden and Richard Bochenek offered an engaging primer in the development of each document. In the brainstorming sessions that followed, they encouraged participants to expand their understanding of what true emergency preparedness would require in their local health unit or office, and provided practical examples in each case.