Nuclear/Biological/Chemical (NBC) Defense - Federation of ...

NBC Defense Annual Report
principles of nuclear weapons and ionizing radiation and the effects of nuclear weapons. The
medical problems associated with radiation, including external exposure and internal contamination
are investigated. This course is offered twice annually at the Armed Forces Radiobiology
Research Institute (AFRRI), Bethesda, Maryland along with shorter “road” courses provided
on-site for individual units or installations. In FY98, 502 Army, 137 Navy, 161 Air Force, and
51 Non-DoD Civilian personnel trained in this course, for a total of 851 personnel.
The focus of the Medical NBC Readiness Course (formerly the Medical NBC
Professional Filler (PROFIS) Course) is on medical NBC battlefield operations, humanitarian
operations, standards, and the threat. The intent of this course is to inform and educate military
medical and preventive medicine professionals about the medical response in the event of an
intentional NBC attack. The course addresses response to, and new standards for, peacetime
operations in areas contaminated with low levels of radioactive material or industrial chemicals.
This course is sponsored by the US Army Office of the Surgeon General and hosted by the
AMEDDC&S. The course is open to Department of Defense preventive medicine officers and
professionals assigned to deployable units or positions who are directly responsible for NBC
consequence management (i.e., military environmental scientists, health physicists, preventive
medicine physicians, environmental engineers, medical operations officers, etc.)
The Medical NBC Defense Training and Education Network provides distributed learning
and digital references via the Internet. The focus of this web site is to improve the overall
awareness of medical NBC issues and to enhance sustainment training capabilities. The “home
page” [http://www.nbc-med.org/] provides doctrinal publications that are inter-connected by
keywords to allow for quick searches of topics. For training purposes, the user can download
these documents. In addition to the internal search capability, this site has a state of the art
internet search engine that allows the user to explore all electronic information in support of
medical NBC training. Training using multimedia technology is also being developed for use
with this network. Currently, the Management of Chemical Warfare Injuries interactive training
package and Medical Management of Biological Casualties Manual is accessible through the site
with nuclear training to be added as they become available. Future improvements to this
network include: expanding connectivity to other military, governmental and private agencies;
scheduling interactive training and education events; and adding related video, video
conferences, and training seminars to enhance training.
The Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine sponsors a Transportation of
Biomedical Materials (TBM) course and a Refresher TBM course. The purpose of these courses
is to certify personnel to package infectious samples and specimens for transport IAW with
requirements of 49 CFR Transportation, Air Force Regulation 71-4, and 42 CFR Centers for
Disease Control. The course is interactive and practical exercises are used throughout. The
course objectives are as follows:
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• Identify and classify infectious substances, diagnostic specimens, biological products,
and regulated medical waste (Department of Transportation).
• Use of hazardous materials table (49 CFR Part 172, 101) to prepare these items for
transport.