Perception of biohazards: a focus on schools in Western Attica, Greece

Biological disasters endanger the lives of teachers and students, causing serious disturbances to schools, and forcing them to shut down for a short or long period of time. Over the last few decades, the Greater Athens area and Attica Prefecture in Greece have experienced several natural disasters. These events have highlighted problems and weaknesses in emergency planning for school communities at both local and regional level, and have shown the need for new precautionary measures and effective risk management for modern society and school communities. The present study reports an investigation of the perception of the risk posed by biological hazards to teacher safety. The investigation utilized a questionnaire survey of teachers working in the secondary education directorate in Western Attica, which was carried out between May and December 2019. The teachers’ perceptions of the extent to which their safety was affected by biohazards (i.e., infectious diseases and weather-related diseases) were investigated using a 5-point scale ranging from affected a lot (− 2) to not affected at all (+ 2). A multivariate statistical technique—principal component analysis—was used to explore the results of the survey. The results showed that the teachers’ feelings of safety were affected a lot (− 2) or affected enough (− 1) by biohazards. 61.5% (n = 72) of the participants reported that their feelings of safety were affected a lot or enough by infectious diseases, and 55.6% (n = 65) of the participants noted that their feelings of safety were affected a lot or enough by weather-related diseases. Compared to other natural, technological, or social hazards, biological hazards seem to have a greater impact on teachers’ feelings of safety. These results could have implications for the design of risk management plans for school communities.