Seeing Border Control in a New Light

IN case you missed it, the heads of state of Mexico, Canada, and the United States announced the North American Plan for Avian and Pandemic Influenza on Aug. 21, setting in place a much-needed Northern Hemisphere response to prevent a disastrous health episode. The crux of the plan is Chapter 5, Border Monitoring and Control Measures.

The plan's parameters are: detect, contain, and control an avian influenza outbreak and prevent transmission to humans; prevent or slow the entry of a new strain of human influenza into North America; minimize illness and deaths; and sustain infrastructure and mitigate the impact to the economy and the functioning of society. Accomplishing these depends on getting Chapter 5 right, and the plan spells out the steps involved. The three countries will coordinate travel restrictions from affected countries, public messaging to travelers departing North America for affected countries, and, if disease exists in North America, exit screening of travelers departing North America in accordance with WHO and the International Civil Aviation Organization's new guidelines.

En route screening also will be necessary because of the short incubation period of influenza and the length of some international flights, and the plan suggests additional training of flight and cabin crews to detect and manage sick travelers. The three countries will coordinate work on protocols for en route screening and reporting on flights bound for North America, and the plan says they are developing protocols now "to coordinate the dynamic management of inbound international flights in high-risk situations." They're cooperating similarly to screen maritime passengers and people arriving at land border entry points.

Finally, the three vowed to share information. "Robust emergency coordination between Canada, Mexico and the United States will be critical during a pandemic," the plan notes. "A successful North America border-containment strategy will benefit from efficient information sharing.... This coordination is especially relevant to monitoring and surveillance, as well as to collaborative land-border public health measures."

Politically, control of U.S. borders has been knotted up in immigration reform and homeland security debates since 9/11. Coping with a pandemic will demand more intrusive screening and tighter borders than we've seen thus far; we'll need them.

This article originally appeared in the October 2007 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.

About the Author

Jerry Laws is Editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine, which is owned by 1105 Media Inc.

Industrial Hygiene Product Showcase

  • Vaask

    Vaask

    Vaask (V-ahh-sk) is inspired by the Norwegian word for “wash” and embodies the desire for a more modern class of clean. The touchless hand sanitizing fixture provides a superior performance engineered for no drips, no mess. The laser sensor accurately dispenses sanitizer from the 2-liter sanitizer cartridge, refillable with any alcohol-based gel of your choice. Vaask can be customized to complement the design of any space and comes in three mounting options. 3

  • Donaldson iCue™ Connected Filtration Monitoring

    Donaldson iCue™ Connected Filtration Monitoring

    Donaldson's iCue™ Connected Filtration Monitoring technology is designed to remotely monitor a facility’s dust, fume, and mist collection equipment and provide operational insights. When connected to your facility’s dust collection system, the iCue service, can track three sets of operational data relevant to EHS professionals including differential pressure (dP), particulate trend monitoring, and relative airflow. The iCue connected filtration service monitors all three conditions and provides real-time data for accurate compliance reporting. 3

  • Combating Combustible Dust with Compressed-Air Operated Vacs

    Combating Combustible Dust with Compressed-Air Operated Vacs

    VAC-U-MAX offers a full range of compressed-air operated industrial vacuum cleaners for high volume recovery of combustible dust, flammable liquid, and reactive powder. Systems do not require electricity for operation, only compressed air and are ATEX tested and Certified. Fill out RFQ at www.vac-u-max.com/vacuum or call (800) VAC-U-MAX. 3

Featured

Webinars