Establishing a base camp assessment program for a forward operating base.

Occupational and environmental health hazards can seriously impact the mission and erode public confidence in the military's ability to protect US personnel. With any forward operating base, it is critical to establish a comprehensive base camp assessment program to optimize health readiness and protect deployed Department of Defense personnel from occupational and environmental health hazards. It is an ongoing, never-ending duty to educate and perform sanitary inspections as well as water, soil, and air surveillance. Establishing a base camp assessment program for a forward operating base is critical to ensure continuous monitoring when the location does not have a permanent environmental science officer or preventive medicine specialist onsite. The specific goal of the base camp assessment program is to reduce disease and nonbattle injury. Lessons-learned have shown the importance of accurate reporting and interpretation of environmental health assessments to reduce disease and nonbattle injury.