Hot topic of discussion
Volume 11, No. 57, November 30, 2006
By Cpl Mike McSweeney

EXPERTS from around the world met at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on November 20 to discuss the prevention and management of heat injury.

Consisting of presentations and workshops, the seminar heard of the 449 cases of heat injury in the ADF between 1997 and 2005.

Director OH&S-A Col Stephan Rudzki said Defence was committed to ensuring it had a leading-edge heat injury policy, particularly because Australian personnel had always worked in hot environments, whether on exercise or operations.

“To make sure we got it right, we felt we needed to get a group of international experts to peer-review the policy,” Col Rudzki said.

“The aim was to get leading heat injury experts from around the world, bring them here to share their experience with a broader audience and then give us the benefit of their knowledge in getting our policy right.”

Col Rudzki said based on feedback from commanders, changes were made to the heat injury policy that was introduced in October 2005.

“Despite people following our policy we’ve still had casualties, so we have revised the policy to incorporate the lessons we have learnt over the first year,” Col Rudzki said.

“With this new policy we’re trying to strike a balance between allowing commanders to train effectively while minimising the risk of harm to the soldier.”

He said service men and women had to work hard in the heat to prepare for operational deployments.

“We don’t do our soldiers any favours if we don’t prepare them properly,” he said.

Minister Assisting the Defence Minister Bruce Billson said understanding heat injury prevention and management was incredibly important.

“Heat injury can be very debilitating at a personal level, but it can represent a burden on units if people aren’t aware of the impact heat can have on their health,” Mr Billson said.

“Some of the insights shared during the seminar have been fascinating ... [such as] practical measures to keep core body temperature at an acceptable level both for the wellness of the soldier, sailor or airman, and also to support their ongoing activities.”