• Lisa M Sweeney, Jeffery M Gearhart, Darrin K Ott, and Heather A Pangburn.
• UES, Inc., 4401 Dayton-Xenia Road, Beavercreek, OH 45432, assigned to U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH.
• Mil Med. 2020 Jan 7; 185 (Suppl 1): 390-395.

BackgroundMilitary aircrews' health status is critical to their mission readiness, as they perform physically and cognitively demanding tasks in nontraditional work environments. Research Objectives: Our objective is to develop a broad operational risk assessment framework and demonstrate its applicability to health risks to aircrews because of airborne chemical exposure, considering stressors such as heat and exertion.MethodsExtrapolation of generic exposure standards to military aviation-specific conditions can include computation of risk-relevant internal dosimetry estimates by incorporating changes in breathing patterns and blood flow distribution because of aspects of the in-flight environment. We provide an example of the effects of exertion on peak blood concentrations of 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene computed using a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model.ResultsExisting published collections on the effects of flight-related stressors on breathing patterns and blood flow address only a limited number of stressors. Although data exist that can be used to develop operational exposure limits specific to military aircrew activities, efforts to integrate this information in specific chemical assessments have been limited.ConclusionsEfforts to develop operational exposure limits would benefit from guidance on how to make use of existing assessments and expanded databases of the impact of environmental stressors on adult human physiology.© Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2020. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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