The risk assessment process used in the army's health hazard assessment program - Tutorial

Acquisition Review Quarterly,  Spring, 2003  by LTC George R. Murnyak,  LTC Michael J. Leggieri,  LTC Welford C. Roberts

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Health hazard assessment is a critical aspect of a risk management acquisition program. Past programs developed without attention to human systems integration have suffered expensive delays, created long-term health and safety problems, and encountered difficulty and expenses during maintenance and demilitarization/disposal. The Army Health Hazard Assessment (HHA) Program uses risk assessment techniques to characterize health hazards associated with new materiel systems. This article provides the acquisition community with an overview of the risk assessment process used in preparing HHA reports and the key roles played by Army Medical Department organizations. This paper also shows how HHA Reports are integral components of a Program Manager's overall risk management plan.

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Effective risk assessment and risk management are essential components of successful acquisition programs. Program Managers (PMs) and the entire program team must perform risk assessments early in the acquisition life cycle to identify critical risks and incorporate mitigations using the systems engineering process. Occupational health risks associated with acquisition systems are one of the many risk areas that PMs need to address early in the acquisition life cycle.

Department of Defense and Army guidance require that environmental, safety, and health risk management be integrated into the system engineering process (Department of Defense [DoD], 2002; Department of the Army [DA], 1997). The Army's Health Hazard Assessment (HHA)

Program supports the overall risk management process by providing the acquisition community with assessments of health risks associated with new Army materiel systems (to include non-developmental and commercial off-the-shelf items) and upgrades or modifications to existing systems. Members of the acquisition community should be aware that health risks associated with military weapon systems need to be assessed and managed along with other program risks.

The Army's HHA Program is designed to identify and eliminate health hazards, or to reduce them to some acceptable level during the life-cycle management (LCM) of materiel systems. Medical personnel assess the health hazards inherent to or resulting from the operation, maintenance, storage, and disposal of materiel systems. The focus of the 1{HA is on potential health hazards that may occur during user training and combat scenarios; however, health hazard issues throughout the LCM may be addressed. The results of this assessment are documented in a formal health hazard assessment report (HHAR). This report provides developers, testers, evaluators, and users an analysis and assessment of health hazards related to a materiel system.

This article focuses on the risk assessment process used by Army Medical Department (AMEDD) professionals to estimate and report potential health hazards. It describes how health risks should be viewed just as all other risks are considered by PMs. Key AMEDD organizations and their role in the HHA process are provided throughout this article.

U.S. ARMY HEALTH HAZARD ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

ORGANIZATION AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE HHA PROGRAM

The Army leadership created the formal HHA Program in 1981 as a result of an extensive weapon modernization in the late 1970s. The fielding of the M198 155-mm Towed Howitzer is one example of why the leadership decided to include an assessment of health risks early in the system engineering process. Soldiers firing the M198 experienced pain and internal injuries resulting from the blast overpressure exposure. In order to control the health hazard, firing restrictions were placed on the number of rounds fired per day. The Office of the Army Surgeon General (OTSG) is the proponent for the HHA Program and is responsible for providing HHAs for Army materiel systems (DA, 1991). Gross and Broadwater (1993) provide a comprehensive historical description of the Army's HHA Program. Additional information about the HHA Program is found in references by Bratt, Doganiero, and Spencer (1997); McDevitt, Bratt, and Gross (1998); and Murnyak, Spencer, Chaney, and Roberts (2002).

Two key organizations that support the Army's HHA Program are U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USACHPPM) and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC). Both are major subordinate commands of the U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDGOM) (Figure 1).

The OTSG appointed the USACHPPM as the executive agent for the HHA Program in 1994 (DA, 1995). Therefore, USACHPPM provides operational support to the Army acquisition program. As Executive Agent, USACHPPM represents the OTSG on all matters pertaining to the HHA program, which includes facilitating AMEDD support, developing and coordinating policy issues, attending program meetings, and providing Health Hazard Assessment Reports (HHARs) on Army materiel systems.

The HHA Program office is located in USACHPPM's Directorate of Occupational Health Sciences. When HHA Program health professionals assess materiel systems, they engage the expertise of other USACHPPM scientists and engineers in 10 technical programs. These include the Environmental Health Engineering, Hearing Conservation, Entomological Sciences, Industrial Hygiene, Industrial Health Physics, Toxicity Evaluation, Laser and Optical Radiation, Radio frequency and Ultrasound, Ergonomics, and the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Programs.