Want to know more?
Visit the Department of Chemistry website
Professor Paul Thomas
T: 01509 222549
E: C.L.P.Thomas@lboro.ac.uk
Whether it’s a terrorist attack in the West or an earthquake in deepest Asia, mass devastation in urban areas is unfortunately no rarity.
Jo Lumani speaks to Professor Paul Thomas, from the Centre for Analytical Science in the Department of Chemistry, about the development of a second generation search and rescue device which will help teams working against the clock in large-scale urban rescue operations.
We all recoiled in horror at the flooding in New Orleans and the images of the recent earthquake in China. We’ve seen relatives – desperately waiting for news of loved ones and frantic with worry. We’ve witnessed rescuers and search dogs, courageously working through the night in the hope that somewhere, there’ll be another miracle – someone who has somehow survived the disaster against all the odds. These are situations where crisis management is key and saved time means saved lives. Developing new technology has never been so important.
Though many of us will have sat glued to TV reports, detailing every inch of devastation, few of us will have witnessed the carnage and destruction of an urban disaster first hand.
A team of researchers led by Paul Thomas, Professor of Analytical Science, is working hard to increase the chances of survival in such situations. As principal investigator of the Loughborough University team, Professor Thomas and his associates are contributing to the development of a Second Generation Locator for Urban Search and Rescue (SGL for USaR), a rapid and integrated stand-alone device for the early location of entrapped or buried victims.
This four-year project aims to construct the complete system,
where cutting edge technology, such as video, thermal and
image analysis, wireless communication, sonar, field chemical
sensors and optical sensors combine to offer the optimum
rescue package for the world’s worst urban disasters. With an
overall budget of several million Euros, this is a project which
aims to make a difference in the very best possible way.
Led by the National Technical University of Athens, there are 21 partners across Europe working on one of eight segments to the SGL for USaR, with each offering their particular field of expertise. Professor Thomas’ team is in charge of investigating the chemical profiles of people trapped in such disasters and how through the development of specialist sensors, rescuers can determine if a person is still alive amongst all of the devastation.
It’s certainly no small task and Professor Thomas is under no illusions about how important it is to develop technology for urban search and rescue situations. “They talk about a ‘golden hour’ in Search and Rescue, where people are usually found on the surface and often rescued by survivors,” says Professor Thomas.
“There is normally a 24-hour window when people who are injured and trapped can be saved, followed by a three-day window, where people who are uninjured and trapped can be saved. Unfortunately, after three days, the chances of survival – unless you have access to water – diminish rapidly.
“The project as a whole looks at providing the essential framework for command and control as well as the next generation technology to assist search and rescue crews to find survivors, as well as deceased casualties.
“It’s about a ‘complete’ approach. You need to set up the communication, the command, control and the facilities which are needed to get people out as soon as possible. The work of our team at Loughborough University is just part of this.”
Professor Thomas is well aware of the emotional and psychological trauma of extreme search and rescue situations and hopes that SGL for UsaR will make difficult decisions less devastating.
“A major decision that must be made is, on what evidence do you stop searching for people? To be specific, we are told that trapped by themselves, children die quickly in collapsed buildings. When do you give up looking for children, when you have more chance of finding adults alive, especially when those chances of survival are diminishing by the hour? It hurts me to say it, but it’s live bodies, not valiant failures you want and signs of life are very important in this context.
“You know that if you see carbon dioxide in a ruin at elevated levels, something is respiring. That can only be good news. Unfortunately though, as well as signs of life, there are also signs of death and danger. One definite sign of death is carbon monoxide. If you have a collapsed building with a fire burning in it and high levels of carbon monoxide, there will be no-one alive in there.
“If you can say with assurance that there are no signs of life, you can move on to another area where you are needed. SGL for USaR should help to justify rational, humane decisions.
“Our contribution is to assist in the development of chemical
sensors and detectors which look for these markers of
life. Dogs are fantastic in this regard, but can only manage
approximately 15 minutes work before they need, typically, to
be rested for up to three hours. Once deployed SGL sensors
run continuously, so you can place the chemical detectors onto
or into a collapsed structure and these will start seeking out
signs of life.
"They work by ionising different molecules – a little like a smoke detector in your house – and the ions then travel at different speeds through an electric field. Indeed, there are many types of detector including electronic noses, which use semi-conductors in the main whose electrical properties change when gases stick to them.
“A human being trapped in a building will produce a large chemical profile. That profile will consist of carbon dioxide and ammonia, as well as volatile compounds which come out in their breath, skin and sweat. Eventually you will get additional, and high concentration, chemical information from their urine and faeces. We need to know which molecules associated with a trapped casualty may be detected with the greatest sensitivity. Our role is to develop the chemical profiles associated with a trapped human. That is Loughborough’s contribution which will be exploited in a large number of ways.”
Loughborough University’s involvement will include the development of collapsed building and void simulators, which will enable Professor Thomas and his research team to define the chemical profiles present in actual situations.
“We have to develop these chemical profiles in the most ethical way possible. We need to simulate entrapped people in a way which is scientifically meaningful, but at the same time is ethical and safe. Volunteers must never be coerced, they must know exactly what is expected of them. They must be able to stop the experiments at any time, and their safety and welfare must be upheld at every stage.
“We have to create the atmosphere of a trapped environment and the volatiles released by a human in this environment. The simulator will have room to wriggle and it will be a bit like sleeping in a very small tent or in a survival bag. Except that a tent isn’t made from materials found in a collapsed building.
“By the end of 2009, we’re going to be looking for heroes really to take part in this programme and volunteer to spend as long as they can in one of these simulators. I believe that people will be coming from all over Europe to help us with our research.
“This is a challenging programme, but one we are relishing. It’s hard to predict what our final findings are likely to be but hopefully, we can make a difference in the best possible way.”
