Current:Home > ContactPentagon updates guidance for protecting military personnel from ‘blast overpressure’ -RiskWatch
Pentagon updates guidance for protecting military personnel from ‘blast overpressure’
View
Date:2025-04-17 09:52:01
The U.S. Defense Department is going to require cognitive assessments for all new recruits as part of a broader effort to protect troops from brain injuries resulting from exposure to blasts, including during training.
The new guidance also requires greater use of protective equipment, minimum “stand-off distances” during certain types of training, and a reduction in the number of people in proximity to blasts.
Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who sits on the Armed Services Committee, applauded the Pentagon for “fast-tracking these needed changes.” He pointed to concerns that an Army reservist responsible for killing 18 people in Maine had a brain injury that could have been linked to his time training West Point cadets on a grenade range.
But Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, chief of the Army Reserves, has emphatically stated that a traumatic brain injury that was revealed in a postmortem examination of tissue was not linked to Robert Card’s military service. An Army report said Card had previously fallen from a ladder, a potential cause of head injuries.
The memorandum focused on repetitive exposures to heavier weapons like artillery, anti-tank weapons and heavy-caliber machines that produce a certain level of impact, not the grenades and small arms weapons used by Card.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks described new guidance that replaces an interim memorandum from 2022 as “identifying and implementing best practices to promote overall brain health and countering traumatic brain injury.” The new memorandum, released last week, builds on existing efforts while leveraging research to protect personnel the future.
The cognitive assessments, to be required for new military personnel by year’s end and for high-risk existing active duty and reserve personnel by autumn 2025, allow for the possibility of additional cognitive testing down the line to establish changes in brain function that could be caused by repeated exposure to blasts, officials said.
The cumulative effect of milder “subconcussive” blasts repeated hundreds or thousands of times during training can produce traumatic brain injuries similar to a single concussive event in combat, said Katherine Kuzminski from the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank focusing on national defense and security policies.
“This is a step in the right direction in that the Defense Department guidance clearly states that we’re not trying to hamstring our commanders, but there are ways that we can be more thoughtful about this,” she said.
The Defense Department has been evaluating units for brain health and performance effects of blast overpressure on brain health for about six years, said Josh Wick, a Pentagon spokesperson.
Emerging information from evaluations of both acute blasts and repetitive low-level exposures are linked to adverse effects, such as the inability to sleep, degraded cognitive performance, headaches and dizziness, and the Defense Department is committed to understanding, preventing, diagnosing and treating blast overpressure “and its effects in all its forms,” he said.
___
Associated Press reporter Lolita Baldor at the Pentagon contributed to this report.
veryGood! (3)
Related
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- 8 officers who fatally shot Jayland Walker cleared by internal police investigation
- Groom kills his bride and 4 others at wedding reception in Thailand, police say
- Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg says vintage car restorer stole $125,000 from him
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- Israeli hostage returned to family is the same but not the same, her niece says
- GOP impeachment effort against Philadelphia prosecutor lands before Democratic-majority court
- New York drivers could face license suspensions over vision tests
- Nevada attorney general revives 2020 fake electors case
- The Hilarious Reason Why Dolly Parton Only Uses Fax and Not Text Messages
Ranking
- A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
- Court says prosecutor can’t use statements from teen in school threat case
- Kuwait’s ruling emir, 86, was hospitalized due to an emergency health problem but reportedly stable
- Taylor Swift is Spotify’s most-streamed artist of 2023, ending Bad Bunny’s 3-year reign
- The Grammy nominee you need to hear: Esperanza Spalding
- Maryland roommates claim police detained them at gunpoint for no reason and shot their pet dog: No remorse
- Indiana man gets community corrections for burning down re-creation of George Rogers Clark cabin
- Where to watch animated film 'Reindeer in Here' this holiday
Recommendation
McKinsey to pay $650 million after advising opioid maker on how to 'turbocharge' sales
Her daughter, 15, desperately needed a transplant. So a determined mom donated her kidney.
Georgia’s state taxes at fuel pumps to resume as Brian Kemp’s tax break ends, at least for now
Elton John to address Britain’s Parliament in an event marking World AIDS Day
Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
Judge dismisses liberal watchdog’s claims that Wisconsin impeachment panel violated open meeting law
Judge dismisses liberal watchdog’s claims that Wisconsin impeachment panel violated open meeting law
Latest projection points to modest revenue boost for Maine government