Читать книгу Practical Field Ecology - C. Philip Wheater - Страница 40

 Survival bag.

 Emergency food.

 Torch (fully charged and with spare batteries).

If working outside of your usual comfort zone, for example in locations overseas, check with researchers or organisations (e.g. The Royal Geographical Society of London²¹) who have experience of working in such countries or habitat types. The travel advice section of the UK Foreign Office website provides up to date information which can help to plan and implement risk assessments for overseas work.²² Even within your sphere of experience, avoid complacency, since conditions may change and even small risks can be hazardous.

Once the legal, ethical, and health and safety issues have been properly examined, it is important to address these through a thorough formal risk assessment process. Most organisations have their own risk assessment proformas and a protocol for producing and checking them. Remember that you should include any hazards that you envisage could occur, together with appropriate equipment and actions (including training) that should help to mitigate the level of risk. All members of the team implementing the work should be fully briefed on the risk assessment and be comfortable that the work in which they will participate is within their skill level. Include within the risk assessment pack any additional information, such as details of important contacts, relevant COSHH material, appropriate first aid information, etc. It is important to recognise that risk assessments are dynamic, working documents that should be revisited and amended where necessary during all phases of the project implementation (especially if issues do arise). When issues do occur, they need to be recorded and any actions taken fully documented. USHA/UCEA (2011) include a list of possible hazard types that should be considered.