Articles by: Matt Fragala
Matt Fragala | September 25, 2023
The COVID pandemic demonstrated the essential role that ventilation and filtration can play in airborne pathogen mitigation and ensuring healthy indoor environments. Guidance on the appropriate levels of ventilation and filtration were generally established in the early days of the pandemic and were based on flushing rates required to reduce indoor airborne particle levels. In...
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Matt Fragala | May 3, 2023
Interest in potential hazards of EtO has increased in recent years in large part because of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) reassessment of EtO’s toxicity and its April 2023 proposals for handling and emissions of EtO. The aim of this post is to provide producers, users, regulators, communities, and others with information that contributes...
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Matt Fragala | April 13, 2023
Ethylene oxide (EtO) plays a critical role in manufacturing and medical device sterilization. However, this antimicrobial pesticide is also a carcinogenic agent that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be more dangerous over long-term exposures than was recognized in the past. As a result, EPA recently proposed revisions to its National Emission Standards...
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Matt Fragala | July 21, 2021
An environmental health and safety (EH&S) program at a college or university is tasked with running like a well-oiled machine – the optimal performance of the overall program requires the smooth operation of each program component. This is much easier said than done. Colleges and universities face a range of occupational health and safety risks...
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Matt Fragala | April 14, 2021
Congressman Jake Auchincloss (Mass.) visited EH&E in April as part of his American Rescue Plan tour, highlighting the success of the plan and its priorities of “shots in arms, kids back to school, and Americans back to work.” EH&E has played a critical role in ensuring the safety of back-to-school plans, working closely with schools...
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Matt Fragala | January 24, 2020
College campuses across the country are instituting green initiatives and signing aggressive carbon reduction goals to become better stewards of the environment. While this aim is admirable and necessary, many colleges and universities set these goals without fully developing a plan for how to achieve them. Once they discover their plan isn’t as easy to...
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Matt Fragala | November 4, 2019
On average, Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors — and the quality of their indoor environment can have significant effects on their health and well-being. Since indoor concentrations of some pollutants can be as much as five times higher than outdoor concentrations, indoor environmental quality (IEQ) should be a top concern for everyone....
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Matt Fragala | June 28, 2018
Putting a real-time air quality monitoring plan in place prior to a complicated demolition or interior renovation project can give universities an additional layer of assurance that they’re protecting sensitive populations in the area. Too often plans to control dust emission on demolition or renovation projects get overlooked. Once demolition has begun—and complaints of dust...
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Matt Fragala | May 14, 2018
As an institution of higher education, you’re focused on protecting the health and safety of your students, faculty and staff — all while maintaining the quality of your campus environment. But now, on campuses across the US, there is growing anxiety about potential health concerns from an old contaminant found in building materials: polychlorinated biphenyls,...
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