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What do we mean by "frontline workers"? In disaster situations, many people, some unexpectedly, end up working on the "frontline" of the disaster. This is because the frontline often emerges in unexpected places. Disaster planning tries to predict these places and people, but disaster studies show that events cut across such plans and make heavy demands of people who get caught up in the chaos or its aftermath. In the FMD crisis frontline workers included field officers, slaughtermen, disposal site workers, vets, haulage staff. However, we could also argue that anyone caught up in the FMD epidemic was on the front line. These workers were often local people whose livelihood had been severely curtailed by the disease control strategies, who already had practical knowledge of handling livestock or the skills needed to operate the vehicles and machinery used in mass disposal; others were conscripted or seconded from a huge range of different occupations and parts of the world with very little prior training or preparation. They often had to operate in dangerous and highly stressful environments, to the extent that a number of respondents have likened this to "war-work".

DOI: 10.1057/9780230227613_7

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