The webinar on the afternoon of 14 October 2020 was chaired by Dr Rickard Moen, the International Chair of the Society of Occupational Medicine, in conjunction with BAPAM. He started off the event by saying that culture is a hugely important part of our society, which is why it was important to study the impact of COVID-19 on the performing arts industry. The webinar featured 20-minute talks by three experts who Dr Moen explained were all intimately involved in advising professional bodies on the topic of Occupational Medicine and the performing arts.
PERFORM study
It was set up to look at the amount of aerosol produced when breathing, speaking, shouting, coughing and singing. Dr Watson conducted the ground breaking study alongside a group of colleagues, which included Consultant ENT surgeon and Chair of BAPAM’s Vocal Health Working Group Mr Declan Costello.
She said, “the suspension of an activity like singing on such a large scale led the team to try and understand, what if any, specific elements of singing was actually dangerous.” The challenge they faced was trying to work out how they could safely re-start, mitigate the risk and impact on livelihoods.
Click here to view the PERFORM study
A safe place to work
Click here to view the BAPAM Risk assessment template for freelancers.
Safe return to performance
The session ended with a Q&A with the all the speakers.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE WEBINAR IN FULL