Foot & mouth labs like ’sieves’

The Sun | Aug 7, 2007

By NEIL SYSON and LUCY HAGAN

WORKERS at the labs at the centre of the foot and mouth nightmare yesterday branded the buildings “leaky as a sieve”.

Current and ex-staff claimed there were many security lapses at the two virus and vaccine centres — the Government’s Institute for Animal Health (IAH) and US-owned Merial Animal Health, at Pirbright, Surrey.

A chemist who recently left Merial claimed a leak was “inevitable”.

He said staff from the labs shared a canteen where decontamination rules were flouted regularly.

He said: “It was ludicrous.

“Dinner ladies were working with people who were contaminated and people from decontaminated areas.

“It was a matter of time before there was a leak.”

A woman who worked at IAH claimed some staff ignored rules about changing in and out of white “bio suits” entering and leaving labs.

She said: “Certain people think they can get away without changing, being in restricted areas in their daytime clothes, and not even washing their hands when moving around the buildings.

“It’s incredibly dangerous.”

Another added: “The laboratories were way past their sell-by date.

“There have even been instances of workers feeling a breeze in supposedly airtight buildings.”

The allegations came as it emerged that the IAH was banned from some cattle experiments this year for failing to remain airtight.

Its facilities were branded “shabby” in a 2002 independent scientists’ report, and it emerged it has been targeted five times in eight months for health and safety breaches.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “The Health and Safety Executive is carrying out an urgent investigation.

“We will await the outcome before drawing conclusions.”

An interim HSE report is due today.

A spokesman for Merial said: “The site and the plant are high security and rules are not flouted.”