The U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) is the

U.S Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

’s main institution and facility for military

environmental medicine Environmental medicine is a multidisciplinary field involving medicine, environmental science, chemistry and others, overlapping with environmental pathology. It can be viewed as the medical branch of the broader field of environmental health. Th ...

and exercise physiology research. It is located at Natick, Massachusetts, within the

U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center The Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Soldier Center, now CCDC SC, was formerly the United States Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, and is a tenant unit of the United States Army Natick Soldier Syste ...

(SSC) installation, but is a subordinate lab of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), headquartered at

Fort Detrick Fort Detrick () is a United States Army Futures Command installation located in Frederick, Maryland. Historically, Fort Detrick was the center of the U.S. biological weapons program from 1943 to 1969. Since the discontinuation of that program, it ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, USA.

Mission

USARIEM’s ''Mission Statement'' mandates that the Institute: The Institute has four divisions, each relating to military human performance as it relates to the environment — Biophysical and Biomedical Modeling, Military Nutrition, Military Performance, and Thermal and Mountain Medicine. Research in the divisions focuses on three elements: the ''servicemember'' (acclimation; body size; gender; race; age; health; hydration; nutrition; fitness; and sleep status), the ''environment'' (temperature; wind; humidity; and altitude), and the ''mission'' (work — intensity, duration, and type; clothing and equipment; and medications). Research on the effect of environmental pollutants on military personnel is not part of USARIEM's mission, but is within the purview of the

U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, Maryland.

History

USARIEM traces its institutional lineage back to 1927 and the

Harvard Fatigue Laboratory Harvard Fatigue Laboratory (1927–1947) was a research centre designed to investigate the physiological, sociological and psychological impacts of fatigue caused by daily activities, and those on the conditions that industry workers faced at the ti ...

. That facility fostered two institutions that ultimately merged. The first was the Climatic Research Laboratory in

Lawrence, MA Lawrence is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, on the Merrimack River. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 89,143. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and Nort ...

(1943–54), which relocated to Natick in 1954 under the new name of the

Environmental Protection Research Division A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

(EPRD) of the U.S. Army’s

Quartermaster Research and Engineering Command Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In ...

. The second was the

Armored Medical Research Laboratory The Armored Medical Research Laboratory (AMRL) was a U.S. Army medical research facility maintained at Fort Knox, Kentucky from 1942 to 1961 to solve environmental problems encountered by soldiers in tanks. Mission Ultimately, the mission of the A ...

(AMRL) at Fort Knox, KY (1942–61) elements of which joined with the EPRD in 1961 to constitute the present USARIEM facility and organization.

Products and capabilities

USARIEM’s basic and applied research capabilities are focused upon biomedical evaluations, health hazard assessments, countermeasures development and a rapid response to a diverse range of environmental threats and problems. Products include individual soldier equipment and rations; guidelines pertaining to training policy and

preventive medicine Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, consists of measures taken for the purposes of disease prevention.Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark as "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental hea ...

; and performance monitoring strategies and predictive algorithms.

Research Divisions

Research divisions within USARIEM consist of Biophysics and Biomedical Modeling (which develops wearable biosensors and biomedical models to simulate effects of heat, cold, high altitude, hydration, nutritional status and clothing systems and equipment)[], Military Performance (which researches performance enhancements [physical, cognitive, behavioral, psychomotor] in military occupational tasks), Military Nutrition (which researches nutritional issues, including new rations, affecting service members), and Thermal and Mountain Medicine (which researches physical and cognitive work capabilities and medical problems associated with military operations at high terrestrial altitude or temperature extremes).

Facilities

USARIEM maintains several unique or highly specialized facilities: *

Hypobaric Chamber A hypobaric chamber, or altitude chamber, is a chamber used during aerospace or high terrestrial altitude research or training to simulate the effects of high altitude on the human body, especially hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypobaria (low ambient ...

Facility or HCF (altitude chambers) ** ''Two Class D chambers (man-rated) rarefied air atmosphere, non-oxygen enriched'' *** ''Large Study Chamber: internal volume of 2000 cu. ft. (floor area 200 sq. ft.)'' *** ''Small Study Chamber: internal volume of 1100 cu. ft. (floor area 108 sq. ft.)'' ** ''Environmentally controlled (altitude, temperature, humidity) & connected by an airlock'' *** ''Simulates altitudes of 800-225 Torr (sea level to 9000 m)'' *** ''Temperatures from -32 °C to 43 °C'' *** ''Relative humidity (Rh) between 20-80% (dew point dependent)'' ** ''23,656 simulated altitude exposures of human volunteers over 33 years of studies'' * 13 Environmental Chambers ** ''Temperatures from -10 °C to 50 °C'' * 5 Biophysical Evaluation Chambers ** ''Temperatures from -10 °C to 50 °C'' * Biomechanics Laboratory * Water Immersion Laboratory ** ''Temperatures from 5 °C to 45 °C'' * Human Exercise Physiology Laboratory * Human/Animal Physiology Laboratory * Psychology Laboratory * Electron Microscopy Laboratory * Animal Housing and Care Facility ** ''

Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International The Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International, or AAALAC, is a private, nonprofit organization that promotes the humane treatment of animals in science through voluntary accreditation and assessment progr ...

(AAALAC) Accredited'' * Doriot Climatic Chamber Complex ** ''Temperatures from -57 °C to 74 °C'' * Laser and Flow Cytometry ''Off site:'' *

United States Army Pike’s Peak Research Laboratory The U.S. Army Pikes Peak Research Laboratory, or simply the "Pikes Peak Lab", is a modern medical research laboratory for the assessment of the impact of high altitude on human physiological and medical parameters of military interest. It is a sa ...

**''Located in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

at 4,300 m''

List of USARIEM commanders

References

:''This article contains information that originally came from US Government publications and websites and is in the public domain.''

External links

Official USARIEM Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:United States Army Research Institute Of Environmental Medicine

Environmental Medicine Environmental medicine is a multidisciplinary field involving medicine, environmental science, chemistry and others, overlapping with environmental pathology. It can be viewed as the medical branch of the broader field of environmental health. Th ...

Natick, Massachusetts Medical and health organizations based in Massachusetts