Somewhere between the tightening budgets of program managers, myriad of demining activities, and fatigue among donors, lies a life-threatening issue which receives limited attention within the hierarchy of themes defining humanitarian demining. According to a large cross-section of deminers around the world, personal protection for deminers is considered a poor second cousin to such themes as mine awareness and victim assistance. They say the issue of improving personal protection needs to be pushed higher up the demining agenda

L\u27Abbe, Richard

Makris, Aris

Poon Young, Derrick

English

James Madison University

Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction Volume 3 Issue 2 The Journal of Mine Action Article 20 June 1999 Body Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Science and End-User Feedback to Improve Personal Protection for Deminers Richard L'Abbe Med-Eng Systems Inc. Aris Makris Med-Eng Systems Inc. Derrick Poon Young Med-Eng Systems Inc. Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal  Part of the Defense and Security Studies Commons, Emergency and Disaster Management Commons, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Commons Recommended Citation L'Abbe, Richard; Makris, Aris; and Poon Young, Derrick (1999) "Body Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Science and End-User Feedback to Improve Personal Protection for Deminers," Journal of Mine Action : Vol. 3 : Iss. 2 , Article 20. Available at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol3/iss2/20 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction by an authorized editor of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact dc_admin@jmu.edu. 1/6/16, 3:53 PMBody Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Scie…ers, by Mr. Richard L'Abbe, Dr. Aris Makris and Mr. Derrick Poon Young (3.2)Page 1 of 5http://www.jmu.edu/cisr/journal/3.2/profiles/labbe/protection.htm Body Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining:Applying Hard Science and End-User Feedback to ImprovePersonal Protection for DeminersIssue 3.2 | June 1999Information in this issue may be out of date. Click here to link to the mostrecent issue.Contributing AuthorsMr. Richard L'AbbePresident of Med-Eng Systems Inc.Dr. Aris MakrisVice-President of Research and Development, Med-Eng Systems Inc.Mr. Derrick Poon YoungBusiness Development Officer, Med-Eng Systems Inc. INVESTIGATING THE STANDARDS OF BODY PROTECTION INHUMANITARIAN DEMININGSomewhere between the tightening budgets of program managers, myriad of deminingactivities, and fatigue among donors, lies a life-threatening issue which receives limitedattention within the hierarchy of themes defining humanitarian demining. According toa large cross-section of deminers around the world, personal protection for deminers isconsidered a poor second cousin to such themes as mine awareness and victimassistance. They say the issue of improving personal protection needs to be pushedhigher up the demining agenda.Many deminers argue that the issue should not be taken lightly because of the livethreats they face daily from anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance during mineclearance operations. Their primary concern goes beyond standard operating proceduresand the lack of consensus among technical experts on what is an acceptable safetystandard for deminers. There is an underlying belief that this lack of consensus,stagnating budgets for protective equipment, and an uncoordinated approach tointernational humanitarian demining activities suppresses the need to improve personalprotection and make more effective equipment available to the deminers.A recently-held focus group meeting on humanitarian demining at the CanadianEmbassy in Washington, D.C. sought to cut through the lack of consensus on personalprotection standards and generate concrete ideas on building the next generation ofenhanced protection systems to improve deminer safety. This focus group meetingassembled several key U.S. donor decision-makers, program managers, technical1L'Abbe et al.: Body Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Science and End-User Feedback to Improve Personal Protection for DeminersPublished by JMU Scholarly Commons, 19991/6/16, 3:53 PMBody Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Scie…ers, by Mr. Richard L'Abbe, Dr. Aris Makris and Mr. Derrick Poon Young (3.2)Page 2 of 5http://www.jmu.edu/cisr/journal/3.2/profiles/labbe/protection.htmevaluators, and equipment procurers. Participants included the U.S. Army, StateDepartment, RONCO Consulting, Naeva Geophysics, Marshall Legacy Institute, theOrganization of American States, and the Night Vision Directorate of Fort Belvoir. Themeeting was sponsored by Med-Eng Systems Inc. of Ottawa, Canada, a private industryleader in the scientific research, design, and manufacture of personal protection systemsin explosive ordnance disposal and to provide protection against explosive devices andanti-personnel mines.The focus group approach was adopted to help some of these key players look at safetyissues from the perspective of deminers. Similarly, it provided an atmosphere whereevaluators and end users could have a significant say in the level of protection whichshould be included in properly designed and manufactured equipment. Some of therecent test and evaluation activities undertaken by Med-Eng in Central America werealso briefly reviewed and shared with the participants. Human factor trials wereconducted on different concepts of body; hand, and head protection systems, and thesesystems were then exposed to blast testing using live anti-personnel mines.ISSUES AFFECTING IMPROVED SAFETYThe focus group identified several problems, which affect agreement on theestablishment of a set of realistic and enforceable international safety standards:UN safety standards are too loose, allowing SOPs to be vastly different from onedemining theatre to another.Prodding, and prodding methods are a big safety concern since the type ofprodding technique adopted by deminers could determine which body areas aremost exposed to serious injury.There seems to be a feeling that demining programs around the world are notproperly coordinated at an international level.Information on operator/deminer safety is unavailable to most decision-makersand the vast majority of deminers, often leading to myths and/or the supply ofinappropriate demining equipment.Deminers are asking for protection of the groin, face, and eyes, and the hands andarms in design priorities.Several participants, including Dan Layton, executive director of the Marshall LegacyInstitute in Virginia, argued that the lack of effective coordination of demining activitiesand failure by demining stakeholders to move more urgently to improve coordinationand collaboration are two pressing issues which must be resolved in order to improvesafety standards and make international demining activities more efficient. The focusgroup participants also agreed that the following issues hamper efforts to improvepersonal protection for deminers:Inadequate documentation available on the relative safety of various SOPs.Little or no information is provided by industry or donors on the protectivecapability and limitations of personal protective systems against the variousthreats or categories of mines (blast versus fragmentation). This leads to a lack ofconfidence in the field regarding the effectiveness of protection systems in2Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, Vol. 3, Iss. 2 [1999], Art. 20https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol3/iss2/201/6/16, 3:53 PMBody Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Scie…ers, by Mr. Richard L'Abbe, Dr. Aris Makris and Mr. Derrick Poon Young (3.2)Page 3 of 5http://www.jmu.edu/cisr/journal/3.2/profiles/labbe/protection.htmgeneral.There are no standards to differentiate between good and poor products.The equipment that has been historically available is not necessarily appropriatefor the humanitarian demining function, nor has it been adequately tested againstthe various mine threats. The results of such tests have not been properlydocumented.Local authorities requesting the equipment are not fully informed about theappropriate equipment required and/or available to them.Decision-makers in donor communities do not always have the technicalinformation available to allow them to make an optimal choice customized to theneeds or threats of the given theaters.Politics also cause problems when countries direct monies towards the donationof specific equipment that cannot be supported by the local infrastructure orequipment that is not compatible with the local needs and culture.What lessons did participants learn from these experiences and what solutions wereoffered? Colonel George Zahaczewsky of the U.S. Department of Defense pointed tothe need for an acceptable, established set of safety standards that are adhered to bydeminers. A qualified, manageable consortium of stakeholders including users andreputable members from private industry should establish this set of safety standards. Inaddition, Col. Zahaczewsky called for the standardization of personal protectionequipment based on a modular design, (e.g. arm protectors, enhanced ballistics, rearprotection, etc.) This modularity should offer technical evaluators, procurers, donors,and deminers the benefit of customizing their personal protective systems to respond tovarying levels of actual threats existing in their respective demining theatre.The concept of modularity was considered to be an important one among participantsbecause it responded to the demand for flexibility, user-friendliness, enhancedprotection, expandability, and cost-effectiveness, particularly in a climate of decliningprogram budgets. More importantly, modularity together with effective internationalcoordination could set the stage for the establishment of more realistic and crediblesafety standards.DEFINING THE FUTURE FOR DEMINER SAFETYIt was evident that the design of any protective ensemble is always a compromisebetween protection, cost, weight, comfort and flexibility, user friendliness, and heatstress concerns. It was also observed that many military and civilian deminers, thoughrelatively proficient in mine clearance methods, were not well versed in blast injury. Byextension, they may not possess intimate knowledge of the actual protection levelsoffered by the array of donated flak jackets and visors, among a variety of otherequipment concepts.In order to stimulate concerted action on improving demining safety standards andpersonal protection for deminers, the focus group recommended the following:The need for increased education on safety issues and mine awareness.The importance of properly documenting and reporting on injuries sustained by3L'Abbe et al.: Body Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Science and End-User Feedback to Improve Personal Protection for DeminersPublished by JMU Scholarly Commons, 19991/6/16, 3:53 PMBody Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Scie…ers, by Mr. Richard L'Abbe, Dr. Aris Makris and Mr. Derrick Poon Young (3.2)Page 4 of 5http://www.jmu.edu/cisr/journal/3.2/profiles/labbe/protection.htmdeminers.The need for a modular body protection system to permit maximum userversatility and allow for protection against a wide range of threats.All protective ensembles should be designed to allow easy removal from aninjured wearer.SOP standardization is a priority.Test generated data on protection system performance should be disseminatethrough properly organized educational packages from the scientific/militarycommunity to deminers in the field worldwide.In addition, it was suggested that a more scientific approach should be adopted tomethodically evaluate personal protective equipment under different threat conditions.The information may be gathered under the auspices of the various international effortsto assess the effectiveness of current or prospective technologies to be employed indemining. Finally, there should be open collaboration among the research, donor, andend user communities to permit an efficient dissemination of technical equipmentassessments and feedback. This will permit the introduction of the most suitable andcapable protective equipment to deminers and enhance their personal safety.The focus group also saw the need for qualified private industry companies tocollaborate with donors, the United Nations, and mine-affected countries to createsolutions. Its an approach which focus group participants believe can maximize theexpertise and resources of private industry to improve the design and manufacture ofpersonal protection equipment and assist with the establishment of improved safetystandards.The group also made note of the positive impact which end user feedback can have onthe design of better equipment and establishment of more effective safety standards. Atpresent, deminers usually receive equipment through bilateral assistance programs fromdonor countries. Often, they have little or no input into the type of appropriateequipment they need and instead settle for the equipment that has been donated.Although this equipment is given in good faith by donors, field research and end userfeedback suggest that the equipment is often inappropriate and does not respond toenvironmental conditions and threat levels in the various demining theatresA strategy to improve deminer safety and introduce a more deminer-centered focus tosafety is being employed by Med-Eng Systems Inc., which hosted the Washington focusgroup meeting. The company, based in Ottawa, Canada, has an internationally reputablebackground and experience in the scientific research, design, and manufacture ofpersonal protection equipment for bomb disposal technicians. A few years ago thecompany transferred its scientific capabilities in live blast effects testing, biomechanics,and design, into the humanitarian demining sector to see if it could offer solutions todeminers. Over the past twelve months, the company has visited twenty mine-affectedcountries to conduct field assessments and live blast trials on a range of protectiveequipment. It has also conducted user trials and focus group meetings with deminers.The empirical information gathered from user trials and focus group meetings stretchingfrom Nicaragua to Mozambique have been added to the company’s extensive data base4Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, Vol. 3, Iss. 2 [1999], Art. 20https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol3/iss2/201/6/16, 3:53 PMBody Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Scie…ers, by Mr. Richard L'Abbe, Dr. Aris Makris and Mr. Derrick Poon Young (3.2)Page 5 of 5http://www.jmu.edu/cisr/journal/3.2/profiles/labbe/protection.htmgathered earlier from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal sector. This combined data isrich in pertinent information that can be packaged and used to educate deminers onblast effects, actual threats, and technical equipment training. This wealth of knowledgecan be used to help establish improved safety standards as well as in the designprioritization and manufacture of improved protection for deminers. ColonelZahaczewsky informed the participants that the U.S. Department of Defense hasgathered substantial post-accident injury data from several demining theatres. The datawill be analyzed and processed by qualified reviewers prior to being released to thedemining community later in 1999.The focus group agreed that this approach to deminer safety could be used to achievethe following objectives:Widely available mine awareness and information on the various types of minethreats based on objective evidence from field tests conducted by credible sourcessuch as the internationally recognized Mine Action Technology EvaluationCenters.The UN refining its safety standards, based on user considerations, materialstechnology, and technically sound threat assessments, leading to a saferformulation of more standardized SOPs around the world.Close supervision, education, and follow-up in all demining theatres by the UN orother appropriate organizations through bilateral assistance, to ensure that safetystandards and their rationale are being understood and adhered to.Standards should be written for protective equipment that are realistic andsupported by hard scientific test results.Establishment of an information feedback system to update the donor communityand decision makers on technological developments and emerging challenges ona real time basis.Production of equipment that is durable, and can be maintained, or ideallyproduced or assembled within mine-affected country.TOWARDS A LASTING SOLUTIONThe next twelve months could see a turning point in the approach to deminer safety.Major organizations responsible for humanitarian demining, such as the United Nations,have the opportunity to work more closely with private industry to come up withsolutions to improve deminer safety and demining safety standards. The focus groupparticipants agreed that the United Nations could not pursue this task alone since it doesnot have all of the required financial and technical resources. Participants also agreedthat the deminer-centered approach to improving safety standards offered chances ofsignificant success. They also accepted that the combined strategy of scientific testingand evaluation, human factor trials, focus groups,and end user input into the design andmanufacture of improved, modular protective equipment provides a much moreeffective means of improving deminer safety and demining activities. 5L'Abbe et al.: Body Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Science and End-User Feedback to Improve Personal Protection for DeminersPublished by JMU Scholarly Commons, 1999

Body Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Science and End-User Feedback to Improve Personal Protection for Deminers

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Body Protection Systems for Use in Humanitarian Demining: Applying Hard Science and End-User Feedback to Improve Personal Protection for Deminers

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