Safety Protocols for Soil Sampling

As we explore key safety issues, a set of recommended Safety Protocols (SP) is presented (Table 1).
Some references on universal safety issues related to safe soil sampling are OSHA (1989).

Table 1. Recommended Safety Protocols.

SP1 An organization or work group should have a safety program.

Safety should be the foundation of each work plan and activity. Our goal must be that each of us can
return to our families at the end of each work day.

SP2 Locate the presence of all utilities in the work area before digging.

SP3 Know the address where you are working and make sure others know this address.

SP4 Use the buddy system.

SP5 Know the biological hazards in the work environment and make sure coworkers communicate about
any known personal life-threatening allergies and where specialized first aid materials are located.

SP6 Only enter confined spaces in compliance with industry established procedures and with proper air-
sampling, ventilation, engineering controls, and emergency retrieval systems in place.

SP7 Plan for, have available, and use appropriate personal protective equipment.

Safety Protocol 1
An organization or work group should have a safety program.

Safety should be the foundation of each work plan and activity. Our ultimate goal must be that each of
us can return to our families at the end of each work day.

■ At a minimum, workers should have the equivalent of First Aid Training. Training is available for a
minimum charge from the local chapter of the Egyptian Red Crescent or from other private vendors.

■Each work place, vehicle, and personal equipment pack should be equipped with an appropriate first
aid kit that contains the materials likely to be needed for first aid in that work environment.

Safety Protocol 2

Locate the presence of all utilities in the work area before digging.

■Call local utility hotline to have publicly owned utilities located and marked.

■Contact private vendors and others, such as property owners, to locate probable locations of private
utilities.

■After utilities are marked, walk the site and make sure that what is marked makes sense. Are
there gas meters, water meters, or transformers that do not have utilities marked between them

and a structure?

Utilities may be publicly owned, crossing right-of-way on public or private property, or may be privately
owned. Privately owned utilities may include water lines, natural or liquefied petroleum gas lines, sewer
lines, etc. between the point of public ownership and the point of use such as between a water or gas
meter and a structure.

As prescribed by law managed by the New Urban Communities Authority, every governorate has some
form of mandated program for the pre location of buried utilities. Typically, there is a requirement for
the operator of the excavating equipment (the company, agency, or homeowner) to contact the NUCA
number and request that utilities be located. Usually there is a notification requirement of 48 to72 hours
before the scheduled work. There can be strict fines, as well as civil liability, for failure to comply.

These fines are often levied if phone lines, gas lines, power lines, or other utilities are damaged and/or
personal injury occurs. Compliance is important because right-of-way for subsurface utilities can cross
undeveloped tracts of land and may no longer be clearly marked. Examples of these are high-pressure
natural gas lines, fiber optic lines, and water lines.

Safety Protocol 3 (if applicable)

Know the address where you are working and make sure others know this address.

It is common for soil investigators to work in remote areas without telecommunication coverage, either
from land telephone lines or cell phones with global positioning system (GPS) coverage. The daily work
plan should list a street address, GPS coordinates outlining a proposed work area, or other means of
identifying the work location. This work plan should be left with someone at home or work who
will know how to find us if we do not return at the appointed time. It is also important to know the
address of where we are working as a team in the event someone is injured on-site. Driving directions
should be in the job file at the office and on-site.

Safety Protocol 4

Use the buddy system.

Ideally, we should work in teams so that if someone is injured or is ill, help can be obtained. If the buddy
system is not possible, it is imperative that someone knows where we are working and when they
should expect us to return. Development of this discipline can be lifesaving.

Safety Protocol 5

Know the biological hazards in the work environment and make sure coworkers communicate
about any known personal life-threatening allergies and where specialized first aid materials
are located.

A key component of work site safety is protection from organisms that cause allergic or other severe
reaction, including plants, bees, snakes, and ticks. All of these organisms can be present at the work site
and the work force should take adequate precautions and be prepared to respond to the unexpected.
Some individuals are highly allergic to bee venom and require immediate administration of
antihistamine drugs to prevent fatal reaction. If you have these allergies, it is imperative that you
communicate this to your team members and friends. Carry the prescription drugs for self-
administration and make sure family and co-workers know where they are and how to use them. It is
important to know that bee venom contains complex organic acids; therefore, application of a baking
soda paste or mild bleach solution is a very important first aid step and often stops a reaction.

These first aid steps should always be used as our bodies may develop allergic responses of increasing
magnitude over time in response to each subsequent event. Poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, and
other plants have oils to which many are allergic. If the work area includes exposure to these plants, use
protective clothing to minimize exposure. Wash exposed skin with soap and water as soon as possible.
Inhaled smoke from campfires or burning brush piles (or wild fires) that contain these plants may cause
severe, even fatal, damage to lung tissue

Safety Protocol 6

Only enter confined spaces in compliance with industry-established procedures and with proper
air-sampling, ventilation, engineering controls, and emergency retrieval systems in place.

Sampling at some sites can present exposure to soil gas or chemical contamination.

Workers should be familiar with confined spaces, their properties, and the dangers they can present.
Confined spaces and regulations are well defined by (OSHA).

One very common property of confined spaces is the potential for the absence of adequate levels of
oxygen to sustain human life and/or the presence of organic or other chemicals that are acutely toxic.

A good example is a well vault. When a low-pressure weather system passes through an area, the earth
“exhales.” A well containing hydrogen sulfide gas may “exhale” into the well vault, resulting in an
atmosphere that may be immediately fatal if breathed. Well vault accidents are common in cold regions,
where subterranean well houses are often used.

The atmosphere inside farm silos or manure pits can be anoxic. It is very common for three to five
people to die in these accidents as coworkers rush to assist someone they assume to have succumbed to
heart failure.

Other examples of common confined spaces include a work trailer or lab where a volatile chemical is
spilled, a septic tank, pump vault, sewer line, or storage tank.

Appropriate personal protective and air sampling equipment is imperative.

Safety Protocol 7

Plan for, have available, and use appropriate personal protective equipment.

An important part of task planning is to verify that adequate personal protective equipment is in place.
Selection of the personal protective equipment is based on the sampling equipment used, the terrain at
the work site, weather, and other expected hazards. This may include adequate clothing for winter
months, proper footwear, hard hats, eye and ear protection, communications equipment, and clothing
that can be removed and disposed of if biological or chemical contamination is encountered. Soiled
clothing can be a path for carrying contamination back to our homes and work places, impacting
unsuspecting individuals.