Planning for research in the field

Ian Hackford

Biological Safety Officer

What is field work?

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Field work: The Imperial definition

Off-site work:

Any external teaching, research or other sanctioned activity carried out by Imperial College staff, students or visiting research workers on behalf of College in places or premises which are not rented or owned by Imperial College and over which the College does not exert direct control.

It includes visits to overseas universities and other academic institutions, attendance at scholarly conferences and research meetings, acting as a visiting examiner to educational bodies outside the UK, visits to laboratories and industrial plant in connection with College research projects or teaching duties, field trips, expeditions and sporting visits as representatives of the College.

It does not include purely private holidays or private consultancy work for which a fee is receivable by the employee / students.

Why do we need to plan: The Law

Health and Safety at Work Act etc 1974Imposes general duties on employees to secure the health, safety

and welfare of people at work, and protect others against risks arising from the work activity

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (the Management Regulation

What employers are required to do to manage health and safety under the Health and Safety at Work Act

Why do we need to plan: History

Sun Tzu (Wu) 孫武 (544-496 BC):

“One who, fully prepared, awaits the unprepared will be victorious”

Why do we need to plan: A modern adage

The seven P’sProper

Planning and

Preparation

Prevents

Pxxx

Poor

Performance

Responsible Research: Policy

College Policy statement

“Identifying hazards and conducting formal risk assessments when appropriate in order to minimise the risk for all activities undertaken by the College”

Offsite work Policy (PC-10A)

“As far as is reasonably practicable, risks must be assessed before travel and controlled to the same standard as would be required for work in College”. http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/safety/policies/individualpolicies/offsiteworking

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Management responsibility

Students are not classified as employees under Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 – technically, you are visitors…….

……..however, under College Health and Safety Policy, staff and students are treated equally

Planning and implementation

ICL Process aims

• To provide Policy and guidance on offsite / field work safety management for workers and supervisors

• To provide a simple easily understood and proportionate risk assessment template for all those involved in offsite work

• To improve awareness of the risks• To Improve safety management• To improve the competence of staff• To comply with legislation and guidance including:

• USHA / UCEA: 2011 Guidance on Health and Safety in Fieldwork

• USHA: 2012 Guidance on Responsible Research?

How much info?

Proportionate to the risk. •A conference in Brighton will require less effort than one in Mogadishu•Learning a microscope technique in another institute may require less input than learning a technique with Mtb.•Taking blood samples from feral dogs in the Sudan will require more detail than counting plovers in the Bristol channel

Murphy’s law

Alfred Holt (Engineer) 1877 from the minutes of the proceedings of the Institute of Engineers: “It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea generally does go wrong sooner or later, .... Sufficient stress can hardly be laid on the advantages of simplicity.

Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke (1800- 1891):

“No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force”.

Problems we encounter

• Timely submission• FCO advice• Road traffic risks• Work on or near water• Communications• Fire• Camping• Disease• Occupational Health• Deliberate work with Pathogens• Security• Emergency procedures

WHAT HAS GONE WRONG

What has gone wrong

Slipped on wet rocks (Upton Cross 2000)

Slipped on wet rocks (Cornwall, 2000)

Tripped on shoe laces in Spain (2006)

Tripped up on night out in China (2008)

Knocked out in Scotland, (Loch Maree 08)

Fall in Tanzania (outside hotel, 2006)

Fall in Zurich (crossing the road, 2004)

Schistosomiasis in Tanzania (un reported)

Malaria in Papua New Guinea (2001)

Malaria death in Tanzania

D&V in Rwanda (2005)

D&V Chennai India (2006)

D&V in Rwanda (Kigali 2007)

DVT Singapore to London (2009)

Pregnancy complication in Uganda (2009)

Epilepsy in Kenya (2010)

RTA Chelsea Bridge, Embankment (2001)

RTA Road death in Zimbabwe (Harare 2005)

RTA head on in Zimbabwe (2006)

RTA with trees, Burkino Faso (2006)

RTA Kamula, Uganda struck pedestrian (2006)

RTA in Burkina Faso W Africa (2008)

RTA whiplash in Turks and Caicos (2009)

RTA in Mozambique (2012)

Shot at in Burkina Faso

Robbery in Zimbabwe (Harare)

Robbery in Dar es Salaam Tanzania (2004)

Threatening behaviour London mini cab (2005)

Robbery Ravenscroft Hospital, London (2006)

Robbery Hammersmith, London (2006)

Butterflies and Volcanoes (2008)

Chernobyl FERA PHCPM import (2009)

Knocked out in Scotland

MSc Field trip to Letterewe Estate studying

Invertebrate populations.

After a few social beers a member of the team

Slipped and fell down some stone steps.

He cut his head and was knocked unconscious.

His colleagues called the emergency services.

An Ambulance crew responded but control stated that they could not get to him unless he was transported back to the main road

The risk assessment had identified that the only access to the estate was by boat because there was no road access

The risk assessment stated that emergency services would be summoned by mobile phone and a normal response was expected

Emergency planning failed to pick up on the poor accessibility of the location and the implications this would have for first responder attendance

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service.

Shot at in Burkina Faso

Imperial College public health research team embedded within a government run health programme.

Convoy of vehicles traveling across the open countryside. One vehicle gets a puncture which delays the convoy.

A village elder offers accommodation for the night as he said the roads were not safe in the evening or after dark. The offer was rejected

Further along the road a road block was seen and the convoy attempted to turn around but was fired on with small arms.

Local warlord extracted a tax on the road in the evenings of market day. He was not pleased that someone was trying to avoid payment.

The risk assessment should have been more dynamic to take account of changing situations and fresh information.

Problem with being embedded in someone else's project is that you may be dragged along with their decisions, good and bad. This should be considered in the risk assessment, and clear actions on foreseeable events such as mechanical failures established before setting off.

RTA in Burkina Faso (2006)

Imperial College Research team travelling in

a three vehicle convoy on a dirt road.

Lead vehicle brakes suddenly.

Second vehicle brakes and slides, driver regains control and steers to one side but is now across the road.

Third vehicle brakes hard and slides, T-bones the second vehicle

Both are written off.

Vehicles were travelling too close.

No one was seriously hurt, they were wearing

seatbelts, the vehicles were in excellent

structural condition and had air bags.

Mozambique RTA: Macomia, Cabo Delgado

Import of radiation and PHCPM

Date of Incident – 16th of June 2009

A pilot study to establish whether it was possible to isolate Saccharomyces yeasts from environmental soil and leaf samples.

A collaborator sent them leaf and soil samples from an area of the Ukraine, 60 kilometres outside the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site.

•Importation of Plant Health Controlled Material, namely oak leaves and soil from the Ukraine, without Phyto sanitary certificates, appropriate licenses or risk assessment.

•Import of radioactive material, namely oak and birch leaves and soil from the Ukraine, without appropriate licences, registrations or risk assessments.

•The collaborator also failed to package and transport radioactive material in a secure and compliant manner.

Import of radiation and PHCPM

The incident was reported to the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA), and to the Environment Agency (EA)

FERA, served a Notice on the College prohibiting movement of the material.

An Environment Agency inspector also visited the site and has requested an explanation as to why College Policy was not followed regarding the carriage, handling and management of the radioactive material.

Arrangements were made, in consultation with FERA, for the material to be incinerated at a licensed site.

The investigation which has been carried out into the incident has identified that there were multiple failings, predominantly concerned with communication of information and training that led to incident.

Import of radiation and PHCPM

Butterflies, war and volcanoes

A study of bird and butterfly populations on the Comoros Islands (2008).

RA submitted to Safety Dept

Checked the FCO http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/

Volcanic eruption and a political dispute

AU troops sent into Anjouan

Check before you travel

Leave plenty of time to act on coments

If the region is too hazardous change the venue.

WHAT HAS GONE WELL

Volcanology: Dr James Hammond and the Eritrean Institute of Technology, Oct 2012 Eritrea

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:AfarDrape.jpg Perspective image of the Afar Depression. {{cc-by-2.0}} en:User:Zyzzy 24 june 2005

Volcanology:Stuck in the Danakil Depression

Volcanology: Nabro volcano seismology, NERC funded.

Volcanology: Kebele Village Chief, guarding the seismic station and educating the villagers.

Volcanology: Erte Ale larva lake, Eritrea / Ethiopia border

Afghanistan: Dr Kathleen O’Reilly, WHO Polio vaccination programme. Kabul and Torkham-Khyber border crossing.

Pathogens - Deliberate work in the field

Collecting Chytrid samples, Ansabere, Pyrenees. Credit: Dr Matthew Fisher. Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London.

DB in the UK lab

ACDP Containment Level 2 lab

Class 2 MSC’s

Autoclave in the lab

Waste management system

Accident procedures

Lab coats

Gloves

Lab manager

Safety Officer

Schistosomiasis – Collecting snails, Tanzania

ShistosomiasisTrematode worm parasite

Fresh water snail and human host

Larval stage penetrates human skin

Eggs shed in urine and Faeces

Schistosomiasis – Field clinical diagnostis

• No laboratory• Basic accommodation• No MSC• 40 degree heat• Stool and urine samples• Gastro enteric disease• Hazard group 3 BBV• Hazard group 2

parasites

Schistosomiasis in the UK lab.

CL2 lab separated from other activities

Class 2 MSC’s

Autoclave in the suite

Waste management system

Accident procedures

Lab coats

Gloves

Lab manager

Safety Office

Mtb - taking samples in the field.

Sukuta permanent field site:

Blood sampling for bio –markers.

Trained clinical staff

Operates to international vaccine trial standards.

Needle stick

PEP

Assault/violence

Mycobacterium tuberculosis – MRC team Fajara , Gambia

A well trained team working to MRC laboratory protocols

A well equipped lab functioning as a full CL3 facility.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis – UK Laboratory

CL3 lab separated from other activities

Class 1 and 2 ducted MSC’s

No sharps

Autoclave in the lab

Waste management system

Accident procedures

Lab coats

Gloves

Suite manager

Safety Officer

Compliance with the USHA / UCEA guidance

• Policy• Defined management roles and responsibilities• Advance planning• Management system to Implement the plans• Threat analysis before departure and during the stay,

• Written risk assessments whose depth is proportionate to the risk with enhanced assessment and authorisation for high threat areas.

• Emergency response• Competence – Risk assessment training, first aid and assessment of competence• Code of conduct• Health management and pre trip Occupational Health assessment.

• Check performance with risk assessment review, feedback and incident reports

Improvements

Death, kidnap and media management aspect of emergency response.

Institutional level tracking of offsite work.

Competency and culture

Feed back

Aknowledgments

USHA / UCEA: 2011 Guidance on Health and Safety in Fieldwork

Foreign & Commonwealth Office : www.fco.gov.uk

CIA World Fact book :

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

Dr Matt Fisher

Prof Beatte Kampmann

Dr Kathleen O’Reilly

Dr James Hammond

Prof Joanne Webster

Dr Poppy Lamberton

Dr Chap with tie

Rev Dr Michael Beasley and Dr Lesley Drake

MRC

The Bio Team at ICL – Anton, Marian, Sarah and John.

Dr Alan Swann the OH physician

Google earth!!