Ebola and Zika should have been wake-up calls, even if those “pandemics” never quite materialized like they were believed.

We all were caught up in the news headlines for months about stories of new pandemics like Ebola and Zika coming from Africa and South America, respectively, and being overwhelmed by fear-mongering news about avian flu and other diseases that were supposed to adversely affect hundreds of thousands if not millions of North American lives once they hit our shores.

[Image of Ebola virus courtesy of Flickr user Global Panorama via a Creative Commons license]

[Image of Ebola virus courtesy of Flickr user Global Panorama via a Creative Commons license]

Now, just because the hype far outweighed the reality of those diseases, doesn’t mean they were only “cry wolf” moments that should be disregarded in the future.  In fact, perhaps the actual next pandemic is probably something that will be under the radar when its hits U.S. shores and will grow an expand once it gets here.

That should be what we’re on the lookout for, but are you prepared for such a thing should it happen and infect your workplace? Did you learn anything about preparedness from the Ebola or Zika scares? Have you added infectious-disease protocols to your workplace safety plans?

Don’t worry. I won’t yell at you if you don’t. Until recent years, there didn’t seem to be much need for such protocols, but recent scares should have certainly woken us up to finding opportunities to address these concerns if and when an actual pandemic affects our workers or their families.

This is where TMC, or the Tony Mozzochi Center for Health, Safety, and Environmental Education, affiliated with Steelworkers Charitable and Educational Organization (SCEO), comes into play.

Thanks to a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), TMC has recently started a three-year initiative to educate workers and supervisors about the dangers of infectious diseases such as Ebola and Zika, and to provide training to workers who are at risk and help protect themselves, co-workers and the public at-large.

The goal of TMC with this initiative is to provide advanced training  for those floor workers who are trainers with some experience in the topics of infectious disease awareness and worksite operations, and to recruit more trainers at local and regional levels to spread the word more quickly and get line-workers educated about the possibilities and have protocols understood and adopted in all workplaces.

Says Jim Frederick of the United Steelworkers, “Our goal will be to arm workers with the information they need to prevent exposures to serious and …. life-threatening infectious diseases.”

NIEHS director Linda Birnbaum said, “We need to ensure we have a workforce ready to contain these and the next infectious-disease threats. This new training program will help workers … stay safe when working with patients or people in high-risk situations.”

Information about the TMC program can be found online.