Covid adds to pressure for workers in forensics

THE threat of Covid19 presents hazards to all key workers – but arguably none are more aware of the dangers of cross contamination than those whose job it is to detect it.

Scottish Police Authority (SPA) forensic teams in Dundee and across the country spend their working days hunting for cross contamination in many forms, including fingerprints and DNA in blood or body fluid.

Their work responding to unexplained deaths, crimes of violence or dishonesty and other incidents including fires and crashes means forensic teams often have to enter hazardous scenes.

Scene examiners assess the risks to themselves before attendance in anticipation of toxic gasses, chemicals or airborne particles, biological hazards, confined spaces, presence of sharps, violence, aggression and many more.

Now Covid-19 is a crucial hazard – placing added pressure on an already stressful job.

Ivan Cunningham, operations manager for Forensic Services SPA in Dundee, said: “Our teams have worked hard over the various stages of lockdown to deliver our service and we have adapted existing safety procedures to keep working safely and meet all of the demands placed upon us.

“Like all key workers, our scene examiners face the reality of this invisible risk and the need to stay focused on safety is an extremely demanding element of the job.

“We work in scenes containing blood and body fluids routinely and have finely tuned our processes using safe systems of work and PPE to deal with this effectively.”

Due to the high volume of