TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- By assessing and reducing environmental hazards in the workplace and surrounding areas, the 325th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron bioenvironmental engineering flight ensures a healthy environment for Team Tyndall, enabling them to focus on generating and presenting ready forces.
The bioenvironmental engineering flight guarantees an optimal environment by conducting health risk assessments, providing preventative care medicine and monitoring a variety of environmental factors.
“Our main goal is to prevent illness and injury for all units, organizations and families here on Tyndall,” said Senior Airman Trevor Mondor, 325th OMRS bioenvironmental engineering technician. “This means ensuring that everyone is not being exposed to hazards they shouldn’t be exposed to, assessing those hazards and implementing controls.”
Bioenvironmental engineering technicians use specialized equipment to monitor hazards that could affect the installation’s immediate and long-term health conditions by testing drinking water, heat stress, industrial processes and radiation hazards around base, helping to provide for safe working conditions within each unit and organization.
“We provide health risk assessments and preventive medicine by performing tests, exposing and pushing out readings throughout the base to all the units on what they need to do in order to keep [Team Tyndall] safe,” said Airman 1st Class Nathan Arnold, 325th OMRS bioenvironmental engineering technician.
The team conducts water sampling, surveys and assessments to comply with regulatory standards and safeguard public health in accordance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, as well as state, local and Defense Department regulations. Following data collection, bioenvironmental engineering organizes and distributes consumer reports on water quality levels.
“The Consumer Confidence Report shows the samples taken and if there are any violations,” said Mondor. “Once we get the results [from the test, we] then provide the information to the Public Affairs office to be disseminated throughout the base. If there are violations, [bioenvironmental engineering] reaches out to the applicable agencies that will come in and do repairs or flush [the systems]. Once the repairs or flushing has been completed, we then take samples making sure that the work that has been done is preventing the issue.”
The Thermal Stress Program supports commanders and supervisors in integrating information on thermal stress prevention into risk management-based decision processes. This program ensures the assessment of thermal illness risk using a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature measurement taken outside to gauge heat stress in direct sunlight by considering factors such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud coverage.
“If we don’t conduct surveillance or assessments no one is going to know the hazards that they are being exposed to,” said Mondor. “Our job is to quantify and qualify their exposure to prevent people from getting sick or dying in order for Airmen to [maintain readiness] for the mission.”