Environmental Health and Protection
Service Members train and fight across the range of military operations often under harsh conditions. Threats addressed by this portfolio including extremes of heat/cold, hydration, and high-altitude. These conditions, alone or combined with other operational stressors, degrade military physical and cognitive performance. Current research projects focus on methods to sustain operational performance under environmental extremes and prevent exertional heat illness, non-freezing cold injury, hydration-related injuries and altitude sickness.
In addition to environmental hazards, Service Members are also at risk for exposure to toxic industrial chemicals and materials in operational environments. This research includes detecting, monitoring, and assessing the risk of toxic environmental exposure during training and combat operations. Overall, the portfolio develops medical standards, predictive models, and countermeasures to prevent or mitigate the effects of extreme environments and toxic material exposure in the military.
Working Groups that support Environmental Health and Protection research are:
- Environmental and Occupational Contaminant Exposure Monitoring and Health Assessment
- Human Performance Optimization in Extreme Environments