21 July 2009

Local trusts help ensure the UK is prepared for any eventuality

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: 11am, Tuesday 21st July, 2009 at the Wellcome Trust Building Reception, Dow Street, Dundee.

Trustee of the Aberbrothock Skea Trust, Mr J G Mathieson will present a £3000 cheque to Professor Sue Black, Director of Centre of Anatomy & Human Identification, University of Dundee and Dr Roos Eisma, Postdoctoral Researcher.

The University of Dundee’s renowned Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification has been selected as the forensic anthropology partner in the UK facility for remote reporting in the event of a CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear) incident which causes mass fatalities.

Mass fatalities, whether caused by a natural disaster, industrial accident or terrorist attack, occur unexpectedly. When such an event happens, a quick and effective response is essential to deal with the recovery and identification of the deceased.

The current project at the University of Dundee focuses on incidents where the remains are contaminated as a result of a CBRN incident. While a 'dirty bomb' attack has not yet taken place in the UK, this is something for which the Home Office is preparing and is putting the infrastructure in place to respond to such incidents.

Further fundamental research must be undertaken to underpin the Centre’s approach to any such mass fatality event, and three local trusts have provided financial support to allow this research to take place.

The Arbroath-based Aberbrothock Skea Trust, Dundee’s Lethendy Trust and a third organisation which preferred to remain anonymous agreed to help the University further its groundbreaking and internationally recognised work in this field.

The three organisations are donating a total of £7000 towards helping meet the salary costs of postdoctoral researcher Dr Roos Eisma and an additional Master’s student who will be appointed later this year.

Mr Mathieson, trustee of the Aberbrothock Skea Trust will visit the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification on Tuesday 21st July 2009 at 11am, to meet Professor Sue Black and present her with a cheque for £3000.

Professor Black expressed her gratitude to members of all three trusts for their generosity, saying 'The underpinning of such important ventures by reliable science is absolutely essential to ensure that we are serving justice and the deceased to the best of our abilities.'

As a first step, the Home Office has organised mobile CT scanners that can be at the scene of the incident within a matter of hours. By scanning the remains, the risk exposure to professionals involved in the aftermath of the incident can be minimised as, instead of handling remains at the scene itself, the scanned images will be examined remotely.

The scientific response to such an incident will be co-ordinated by FIMAG (Forensic Imaging Group), the core organising scientific group. The remote reporting will be undertaken at Leicester University, dental reporting in Cardiff and the anthropology aspect being undertaken by CAHID in Dundee.

However, some fundamental underpinning research must be undertaken before full confidence in the approach can be guaranteed.

Dr Eisma’s research asks how accurate can we be in our assessment of the identify the victims if we must view CT scans instead of the actual remains from these types of disasters?

The techniques traditionally used in forensic anthropology have been developed and evaluated on actual material and not on virtual images - it is not known how well methodologies transfer between one medium and the other. There has been no research to assess if the reliability and accuracy are comparable to the original tried and tested methods.

Dr Eisma explained, 'This is an area that has not been investigated yet so there are many outstanding questions. We try to translate all the tasks we would do on 'real' remains to an image on a computer screen.'

'For example, we would normally measure the length of the femur with an osteometric board. How should we manipulate the CT scans and make on-screen measurements? How can we identify a landmark on the bone, for example a ridge used in a measurement, on a scan and be sure this is the same location?'

Results have to be reliable, precise and repeatable. Identification of victims is incredibly important for relatives, as well as for legal reasons. Results can be questioned in court so findings must be backed up with solid research and the technique must produce results that will be admissible in court.

In the past two years, the University of Dundee have made a number of steps towards addressing the core of this research, and this is the work which has been partially funded by the local trusts.

Mr Mathieson said the Aberbrothock Skea Trust recognised the worldwide reputation of Professor Black and her colleagues and were delighted to be able to provide assistance.

He said, 'Clearly there are significant scientific developments taking place regarding the recovery, and the off-site investigation, of human remains. The Aberbrothock Skea Trust is pleased that we have been able to offer support for such worthwhile and specialist research.'

NOTES TO EDITORS

Dr Eisma’s research (whose salary has been part funded by the Aberbrothock Skea Trust, the Lethendy trust and an anonymous trust) has resulted in;

• A contribution to a project in which measurements on CT scans of amputated legs were compared with measurements of the actual bones. This resulted in the paper:
• Robinson, C., Eisma, R., Morgan, B., Jeffery, A., Graham, E.A.M., Black, S., Rutty, G.N. (2008) Anthropological Measurement of Lower Limb and Foot Bones Using Multi-Detector Computed Tomography. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 53 (6), pp.1289-1295
• Participation in Operation Torch, a rehearsal exercise based on a terrorist scenario, which saw scans were sent to Dundee via internet and analysed, trying to answer questions such as: which bones and other tissues are present, and are they all human? This identified a number of areas for further research, such as procedures required to develop for analysing the CT scans. It also highlighted some of the difficulties in remotely collaborating in a major incident.
• Honours student Adam McLean undertook a research project in which a number of measurements of real femora were compared with the same measurements done on the CT scans of these bones. In this project, two different approaches to taking the measurements on the scans which involved different ways of visualising the bone on the screen. We also compared if certain types of measurements are easier than others. The results are currently being prepared for publication.

ABOUT THE ABERBROTHOCK SKEA TRUST:
(Registered Charity Number SC039202)

Background Information for Applicants

This Trust was established in 2008 following on the merger of Aberbrothock Charitable Trust and Amy Barnet Skea Charitable Trust. The Aberbrothock Charitable Trust had been established by the late Brigadier and Mrs Oliver of Arbroath in 1971 with a direction that the income of the Trust be used to promote purposes for the benefit of the community which are recognised in law as charitable. Mrs Amy Barnet Skea, late of Brooklyn, Keptie Road, Arbroath died on 1st July, 1993 leaving the residue of her Estate to be held in a Charitable Trust with the income of the same to be made over to charitable institutions as chosen by her Trustees.

The new Aberbrothock Skea Trust has an available income currently of around £100,000 per annum which is distributed by the eight Trustees at three meetings each year, normally in March, July and December.

In order to focus benefit in useful sums, the current policy of the Trust is to give grants only to organisations with charitable status carrying out their objectives within Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross, Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire. A significant part of the annual distribution is made over to voluntary groups based or supporting works in Angus and in particular Arbroath. There is no restriction on the type of organisation that may be supported, provided it has charitable status, the Trustees will not normally give grants in the following circumstances:-

1. To any organisations which are not recognised as a charity by the Inland Revenue.
2. To individuals, including students.
3. Sponsorship or marketing appeals.
4. Activities which collect funds for subsequent redistribution to others.
5. Expeditions or overseas travel.

The Trustees are particular keen to support (a) projects which improve the quality of life of the residents of Angus (and in particular Arbroath); (b) organisations involved in community activities; (c) groups assisting the disadvantaged and those isolated by mainstream society; (d) groups assisting the elderly and the sick; (e) activities promoting good citizenship in the young; and (f) projects promoting sport and artistic development.

The Trustees also need to be satisfied as to the suitability and strengths of the applicant organisations, having particular regard to the enthusiasm, vision, efficiency and resourcefulness of the applicant organisations.

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University of Dundee
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