Human Performance Physiology and Environmental Medicine at Terrestrial Extremes

The U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) was officially activated as an installation of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command on July 1, 1961 with the mission 'to conduct basic and applied research to determine how heat, cold, high terrestrial altitude, and work affect the soldier's life processes, his performance and his health.' In reality, the Institute's history dates back to laboratories established during World War II as a merger between elements of the American Medical Research Lab in Ft. Knox, KY and the Environmental Protection Research Division of the Quartermaster Research and Development Command at Natick, MA.

The Institute's scientific staff has access to many unique and highly specialized chambers that are capable of supporting animal and human experimentation in a wide variety of simulated environmental extremes. Two altitude chambers with an air lock can simulate altitudes up to 7,620 meters, temperatures from -22 degrees C to 50 degrees C, and humidity from 20 percent to 80 percent over extended periods of time. The Institute also maintains a field laboratory on the summit of Pike's Peak, CO at an altitude of approx 4,300 meters. It also houses 14 environmental chambers that are capable of providing controlled temperatures from -40 to 60 degrees C. Facilities are also available for water immersion research in a thermally-controlled pool which is 3 x 3 x 4.2 meter, holding 36,000 litres of water and capable of controlling water temperatures between 5 and 45 degrees C.

This book is a compilation of studies on the physiological and medical responses to the environmental extremes of heat, cold, altitude, diving, and poor air quality.