College fined over deadly virus

Imperial College's approach to safety was "flawed"

One of Britain's leading research institutions has been fined £25,000 after exposing staff to a "deadly" virus.

Imperial College was also ordered to pay more than £21,000 costs at London's Blackfriars Crown Court.

Workers at the institution were dangerously exposed to infection from a hybrid virus for which there was "no known vaccine or treatment", the court was told.

The court's decision comes just over a year after the college was fined £20,000 for a safety breach involving HIV virus research. In 1998 it was also fined £4,500 for exposing a worker to an "animal allergen".

Hepatitis C causes severe infection and is frequently fatal ... whereas dengue fever can cause severe but rarely dangerous infection

Prosecutor Keith Morton

The college's "seriously flawed" approach to health and safety matters in this latest case raised a distinct possibility that Hepatitis C and dengue fever could be released into the open.

Prosecutor Keith Morton said an experiment cabinet was wrongly used and ventilation procedures were inadequate.

Mr Morton also said there was no protection equipment available and no proper system of waste disposal in place at the St Mary's Hospital campus in Kensington, south west London, where the research was being carried out.

"They have shown a disregard for basic measures to ensure and monitor safety, as a consequence of which their employees were exposed to a very real risk of infection," he told the court.

'Severely infectious'

"This was aggravated by the fact that safety advice from the Health and Safety Executive was ignored."

The court was told the breaches occurred against a backdrop of growing concern within the college about general safety standards at the campus.

"The prosecution say that while this was important work, that can be no excuse for the failures which were revealed," Mr Morton said.

"Hepatitis C causes severe infection and is frequently fatal, but is difficult to catch, whereas dengue fever can cause severe but rarely dangerous infection, but is severely infectious.

A very senior research professor working at the college, having been given the clearest possible guidelines, had simply not observed them

Dominic Grieve, defence barrister

"However, a hybrid virus was unpredictable.

"In particular its tropism, the target tissue in which it would reproduce, was unpredictable and there was no vaccine or treatment available."

Dominic Grieve, defending, said Imperial College "apologises and very much regrets" what had happened.

He told the court Professor John Monjardino, who was in charge, had been a "distinguished" member of the faculty, although he was now nearing retirement and no longer allowed to conduct research work.

Mr Grieve told the court: "At a safety level the college simply never knew that the professor had started this work. We have had no explanation from him why he did start it.

"By oversight, or whatever cause, a very senior research professor working at the college, having been given the clearest possible guidelines, had simply not observed them."