Posted By Ian Bennett I have read recently in the papers that a In Case of Emergency I.C.E contact number i.e . next of kin or doctor in a mobile phone may assist emergency services after an accident. I wondered what the IOSH readership thought about this as a proposal to employees.

Posted By MichaelM Ian Refer to thread "In Case of Emergency" last posting on 13/7/05. I work in a LA and we have been talking about this and think it a good idea in general. Michael

Posted By MichaelM Out of the country!?! That's not an excuse! There was a response to a thread today from Nigeria. Get into that cybercafe when you are out and about and keep that daily fix going

Posted By jason telford it's a good idea if your mobile is blast proof and before you start i am not taking the events of last week lightly

Posted By Rosina Waterson just a quick note. I too thought this was a great idea but received an e-mail today warning the following: Be very careful with this one - although the intention is great it is unfortunately phase one of a phone based virus that is laying a path for propagating very quickly. Passing it on is part of the virus interestingly,such is the deviousness of the people who write these things. We have already seen the "second phase" where a program is sent as part of a ring-tone download that goes into your address book and looks for something it recognises - you've guessed it, an address book entry marked "ICE or I.C.E." or whatever. It then sends itself to the "ICE list", charging you for the privilege. is this a hoax or a potential problem?

Posted By John Webster The ICE idea is genuine and legitimate. The virus warning (like most chain letter e-mail virus warnings) almost certainly a hoax. If it were possible to do what it says, the "virus" would only need to look for common entries, like "mum" or "dad" to do its work. This is probably just some nasty little puerile git trying to take the shine off a good idea, and hoping "their" message gets around cyberspace quicker than the original.

Posted By Tyler If the phone companies were able to build in an area in the phones memory to store the I.C.E numbers then the emergency services could be given an overriding code that not only unlocks the phone but also allows them to see the ICE numbers the user has put in. In short. The user can lock the phone and has his/her PIN to unlock. The emergency services have a PIN that will work on all phones to get access to only the ICE numbers. This way the locked phones are not a problem and the idea of a thief getting up to mischief by ringing the numbers (as mentioned on the original thread) would not be a problem either as they will not have the PIN code. This, ofcourse will require some input from the phone companies/manufacturers and some cooperation with the emergency services but we need to start somewhere. Thinking further down the line, once the emergency services have unlocked the phone with their over riding code. As well as the ICE numbers other information could be released such as Name, Adress, Blood Type, Allergies, details of current medication etc all of which the phone owner could put in the phone in the knowledge only the emergency services could see it. Of course this requires even more planning and raises some security issues that need to be adressed. What do you think?

Posted By Bill Fisher Jom The idea of I.C.E. this time around was put forward by a senior Paramedic who attended the London incidents. The point he made on national TV was that almost everyone dealt with in the aftermath had a mobile phone on them but very few had other belongings top hand. That said having a bank of info in addition to a diary will not be an inconvenience. And if you didn't want to take part then don't make an entry. His point that the stored number could be used by the Casualty Bureau to alert next of kin and indeed ascertain prior medical conditions/GP therefore hospital records which could be useful. I like the idea of the emergency services having an overide code to an I.C.E. area on the phone - you could store things like doctor's name and other useful info. I will be contacting IOSH Technical Advice Team to see if they would be willing to take this to the Telecomms industry for assessment. Regards Bill

Posted By Lynne Ratcliffe http://www.eastanglianam...ail.asp?newsID=646104183 The ICE contact details has been around since April 05, see above link. Further suggestion that you contact your ICE nominee if your phone is stolen to advise them that you are OK it is your phone that is distressed.