FORT BENNING GA - With temperatures reaching well into the 90s and above, the summer season marks a high-risk period for heat injury. Now is the time to be especially careful about staying safe outdoors, said MSG(R) Kestner Edens, safety and occupational health specialist with the Fort Benning Safety Office.
"The biggest thing is you got to drink ... and I don't mean beer," he said. "Drink water, Gatorade, Powerade. It cools the system. If you don't replenish your electrolytes and cool your body down, you're going to become a serious heat casualty."
Alcohol, soft drinks, tea and coffee aren't good choices for anyone trying to stay hydrated, since they actually dehydrate the body, Edens said.
Other key factors to consider are staying in the shade, wearing sunscreen and eating to renew the body's supply of energy.
"They have to take it seriously," Edens said. "Have fun, enjoy the day, (but) be careful."
When Soldiers train outside during the summer, leadership takes heat safety very seriously, said CPT Calvin Hutto, operations officer for 3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, 192nd Infantry Brigade.
All brigade Soldiers must carry at least one canteen or camelback of water with them at all times on the range, he said. Cadre carry a heat injury prevention card with the steps to take in case someone suffers heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
While the risk for heat injury is high due to rising temperatures and humidity, leadership is given leeway in their efforts to counteract the risk, he said.
"In the training environment, it's one of the things we can easily control," Hutto said. "We can mitigate the risk of heat so easily with a well-thought-out plan and a risk-management process that's briefed to each Soldier."
The commanders implement controls, such as moving to the shade, downgrading the uniform or making sure Soldiers drink a certain amount of water each day.
Sand Hill Soldiers use a string of beads to keep track of how much water they drank during the day, moving one bead for each canteen and two for each camelback.
Soldiers also use "ice sheets," large sheets soaked in ice water and ready to cool a heat victim if needed, Hutto said.
There are three stages of heat injuries. The first, heat cramps, involves cramps in the arms, legs and abdomen, said SGT Joseph Stephens, environmental health NCOIC with the Department of Preventive Medicine.
It's a result of dehydration, he said. The skin becomes flushed and often feels clammy as the victim perspires less.
Heat exhaustion is the next stage of severity. Symptoms include light headedness, lack of energy, dizziness, a headache, absence of sweating and sometimes vomiting.
For either condition, the person needs to be removed from the heat, sip cool water and relax, Stephens said.
In the case of heat stroke, the most severe response to excessive heat, emergency personnel need to be called in.
"As you get hotter your heart rate increases. Your body had no water, no way of cooling down, so its response is to shut everything down," Stephens said. "If you're outside and you see somebody just drop, call 911. Time is of the essence. What you can do is move them to a cool area and then just wait for emergency personnel to get there."
Stephens said his goal, and the goal of Preventive Medicine, is to make sure things don't progress to the point where a trip to the hospital is necessary.
"It's going to get hotter. The summer isn't over until mid- or late-August; that's when it normally starts cooling off around here," he said. "Drink water. Your blood is made of 70 percent water, so if you don't replenish the water as you're sweating, then your body can no longer function the way it's supposed to.
Monitor the time (you) are outside in the extreme heat. You should always use sunblock if you're going to be out 30 minutes or longer. You can develop skin cancer. And look out for each other. Some people think 'I'm a superhero; I can do anything' and sometimes all it takes is someone else saying, 'You look kind of warm. We need to go inside.'"
For more information about how to avoid heat injury, call 706-545-1144.
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