A HAND-held monitor developed by a laboratory in Wiltshire could save lives of British servicemen and women in the event of a war against Iraq.

A revolutionary health monitoring kit was developed by scientists at Porton Down following the Gulf War and has undergone successful tests.

Now it is on standby to be issued to the services if Britain gets involved in a military coalition with the USA against Saddam Hussein.

The PRISM Prototype Remote Illness and Sympton Monitor has already been tested in the field.

During the recent major joint military exercise Swift Sword in the arid deserts of Oman the kit passed tests with flying colours.

And it will soon be widely available to deal with a wide range of health risk situations.

PRISM was primarily designed for the detection of nuclear, biological and chemical attacks.

The main purpose of proposed military action would be to disable Iraq's ability to develop weapons of mass destruction.

And, while Saddam is not yet believed to have nuclear capability, Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned that he could launch a biological and chemical attack with just 45 minutes notice.

Some military analysts say the Iraqi leader could attempt to turn to the weapons as a final resort in the event of n invasion.

The PRISM could help the armed forces in their monitoring of any attack.

The monitor involves the collection and reporting of medical signs and systems, together with detected prevailing odours, events, position and time data.

This information is then inputted into a hand held device similar to a mobile phone before being sent and updated regularly to a central co-ordinating position.

The information is carefully collated and studied and alarms start ringing when a perceived health threat is identified.

This allows medical personnel to act quickly enabling treatment and other protective measures to be deployed faster and more directly to those in need.

During the Oman exercise medical personnel from all three services were issued with PRISM units.

They successfully keyed in signs and symptoms of individuals in the field, and this information was sent on via a global positioning system receiver and a satellite phone to analysis computers in Oman and at Porton Down.

Porton Down scientist, Dan Webber, who has helped develop PRISM, said it was primarily designed for the detection of nuclear, biological and chemical attacks.

But there are many other applications it could probably be used for. He said: "The technology could be used in major humanitarian disasters and at refugee camps to help prevent the spread of disease, or for understanding animal-crop infections and the monitoring of flood and famine effects."

He said the system could have played a major part in dealing with the foot and mouth epidemic which ravaged the country last year.