8/9/2019 14VEdescon

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14th International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology

Clean Cave Gear

In Australia we are, naturally, concerned about White Nose Syndrome, as well as other possiblepathogens that could be transferred on cave gear travelling to and from any other countries (notonly north America). Your caves do not want our bugs any more than we want yours.

For this reason we would prefer that you all use locally provided cave equipment on thesymposium field trips (overalls, helmets, etc - see details below). Bringing in new equipment isOK, but you will want to decontaminate it before taking it back home. We suggest you buy a cheapnew cave pack and leave it and its mud in Australia when you depart. Note that SRT gear is notneeded for the caves we will be visiting on the symposium excursions. We will provide ladders andbelay ropes for the few short pitches involved.

However, we realise that most of you will prefer to use your own boots. We therefore ask that youdecontaminate these thoroughly before coming to Australia (see boxed text below).

Note that you also need to decontaminate any carry bags and luggage that has been in contactwith dirty cave gear, and don't forget your camera gear and its bag. We will be providingdecontamination facilities before we enter any cave.

For the pre-symposium excursion, we can provide overalls, helmets and lights from local club

equipment pools. A charge of $10 (AUD) will be levied to cover washing overalls etc, and you willneed to purchase batteries. We will have some for sale at cost. Please emailsusanqwhite@netspace.net.auwith any requirements for helmets, lights and overalls and sizes foroveralls (ie height, leg length, girth) so that she gets the right sizes (We have some requests but nosizes listed). If any other equipment is needed please contact Susan asap.

At Undara – for the Bayliss Cave trip, some lights and helmets will be available for hire throughthe Chillagoe Caving Club. These lights are small AA-powered LEDs. Overalls are not required butclothes may get a little muddy.

We are also concerned about transfer of cave pathogens between cave areas within Australia. So,for those going on the Victorian pre-conference excursion, we will have a decontamination stagebetween that area and Undara.

We will also provide decontamination facilities at the end of the symposium for boots and otherequipment you want to take back safely to your own country. Caves should only be entered withclothing, boots, and equipment that have been fully cleaned using the protocol below. We ask thatyou not take gear into a cave if that gear cannot be thoroughly decontaminated or disposed of (i.e.if harnesses, ropes or webbing, etc. cannot be decontaminated, we advise that you not enter cavesor parts of caves requiring use of this gear). We will be providing the equipment and using eitherthe quaternary ammonium treatment or the sodium hypochlorite-based treatment. Specifics will beavailable prior to entering the caves and cleaning time is scheduled into the trip.

For decontamination details see: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/wnscavers.html

and click on the link "Recommended Procedures to Prevent the Spread ..."

Or go to the NSS site, http://www.caves.org/WNS/ and click on the "Please clean and disinfect..."link there.

In particular, note the following procedure for boots (taken from the above document).

"Boots need to be fully scrubbed and rinsed so that all soil and organic material is removed. Theentire rubber and leather boots, including soles and leather uppers, can then be disinfected withan appropriate disinfectant such as >= 0.3% concentration of quaternary ammonium compounds(i.e. Sparquat 256, Lysol® All-purpose Professional Cleaner or the antibacterial form of Formula409®) and sodium hypochlorite bleach (i.e. household bleach) solution diluted to 1 part bleach to9 parts water. Keep on surface for 10 minutes, then rinse and air dry."