NMRC Staff Attend Stand-Down for Summer Safety

Photo By Michael Wilson | SILVER SPRING, Md. (May 26, 2022) – Sailors from Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) visit the fire safety booth during the summer safety stand-down. NMRC, along with Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, held the summer safety stand-down for command staff. The event featured a safety presentation followed by outdoor demonstrations by guest organizations, including the Maryland Park Service, Montgomery County Police Department and Fort Detrick/Forest Glen Fire Department. (US Navy photo by Michael Wilson/released)  

SILVER SPRING, MD, UNITED STATES

05.27.2022

Story by Sidney Hinds 

Naval Medical Research Command

SILVER SPRING, Md. – Sailors and staff of Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) participated in a summer safety stand-down on May 26.

NMRC, along with Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, held a two-part event, which featured a summer safety presentation followed by outdoor activities.

The outdoor event featured booths and demonstrations by representatives from various guest organizations, including the Maryland Park Service, Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) and Fort Detrick/Forest Glen Fire Department. Representatives provided answers to staff questions on issues such as gardening, swimming safety and preparing for summer outings. Officer Joy Bartholomew, an MCPD representative, spoke highly of the commands.

“There are very few problems on the facility itself,” Bartholomew said, “but off facility, there are issues that everyone encounters – vehicle dangers, pedestrian safety and bicycle safety, especially in the summer.”

Summer safety was the focus of the stand-down, one of two that the Navy conducts annually to address seasonal safety issues.

“Summer is the time for the greatest number of injuries among DoD personnel,” said Thomas Croker, the Joint Safety Office’s lead occupational safety health specialist. “It’s when people get outdoors and go on vacations. We want people to keep the safety elements of all these summer activities at the forefront of their minds.”

While guidance offered at the booths emphasized off-site summer safety, stand-down activities such as the hand washing demonstrations had additional relevance specific to these research facilities.

“Hand washing is the first line of defense against infection and disease,” said Karon Floyd, deputy director of the Joint Safety Office.

“On an installation where researchers work with viruses and bacteria, we need to be aware of what we touch in the lab and in common areas. When you touch a key pad with the gloves you handled bacteria with, you don’t know if next person might touch it with their bare hands.”

Handwashing guidance has increasing importance for all staff over the past two years as an everyday means of controlling COVID-19 transmission.

Croker emphasized at the end of the stand-down that safety encompasses everyone at the research facilities.

“Joint Safety [Office] is here to make sure this is a safe and healthy environment for everyone on the installation,” he said. “That’s true whether they are military, civilian, or contractor.”

NMRC's eight research commands are engaged in a broad spectrum of activity from basic science in the laboratory to field studies in austere and remote areas of the world to investigations in operational environments. In support of the Navy, Marine Corps, and joint U.S. warfighters, researchers study infectious diseases, biological warfare detection and defense, combat casualty care, environmental health concerns, aerospace and undersea medicine, medical modeling, simulation, operational mission support, epidemiology, and behavioral sciences.

• Date Taken: 05.27.2022
• Date Posted: 05.27.2022 16:14
• Story ID: 421763
• Location: SILVER SPRING, MD, US