I AM GPH interview with Dr. Robyn Gershon

Listen to this insightful interview with Dr. Robyn Gershon regarding the importance of promoting the health and safety of essential workers. Dr. Gershon speaks of the art and science of health protection, promotion, and empowerment of communities to take control of their health; from working on needle-stick injuries among health care workers to improving the standards that define how we conduct business in workplaces.

In this podcast, Dr. Gershon shares detailed stories from the experiences of survivors of 9/11 when she was the principal investigator of the World Trade Center Evacuation Study, this study was designed to identify the factors that helped people or hindered them from evacuating the towers. She discusses the mental health impacts of the event on the survivors and delves into some of the risk factors for developing post-traumatic stress disorder 2 years after the event. The resulting lessons of this event influenced changes in how business is conducted in high-rise buildings and how building codes have adapted and their enforcement is more rigorous.

Dr. Gershon shares her experiences with how she got started on the transit worker study, what inspired her, and what was her first opportunity working with the transit workers union. She goes on to discuss the results of a pilot study she conducted on this cohort, where she found that almost 25% reported that they have been infected with SARS-CoV2. Naturally, the debate then revolved around the source of infection, and her research team found that the source of infection is unlikely to be acquired from their community but rather exposure at work. 

Listen to the full episode here