Strategies to protect the health of deployed U.S. forces

Risk management is especially important for military forces deployed in hostile and/or chemically contaminated environments, and on-line or rapid turn-around capabilities for assessing exposures can create viable options for preventing or minimizing incapaciting exposures or latent disease or disability in the years after the deployment. With military support for the development, testing, and validation of state-of-the-art personal and area sensors, telecommunications, and data management resources, the DOD can enhance its capabilities for meeting its novel and challenging tasks and create technologies that will find widespread civilian uses. Strategies to Protect the Health of Deployed U.S. Forces assesses currently available options and technologies for productive pre-deployment environmental surveillance, exposure surveillance during deployments, and retrospective exposure surveillance post-deployment. This report also considers some opportunities for technological and operational advancements in technology for more effective exposure surveillance and effects management options for force deployments in future years.