An on-going Survey of Expedition Health & Safety has been carried out by the RGS-IBG since 1995 to help improve the effectiveness of the work of the Medical Cell.
The data for the years 1995-97 was published by Sarah Anderson and Chris J H Johnson in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine as a paper: Expedition health & Safety: a risk assessment (JRSM November 2000, vol 93, pp 557-561). The paper describes the risks of participating in an expedition and can be downloaded as a .pdf file or photocopies supplied on request.
A more general interpretation of the data for the years 1995-2000 to help future expeditions to better prepare their journeys can be downloaded as a .pdf. If possible this should be printed out in colour to improve interpretation of the the charts and graphs.
All expeditions are encouraged to contribute to the survey by registering your expeditions and fieldwork plans and completing the Expedition Health and Safety form on completion of your expedition. Details of any near-miss incidents are also very useful in helping avoid similar accidents, please alert us to these using the Near Miss Data form.