Military Hygiene and Hygiene in Emergency Situations - K.O. Pashka 2005

Fundamentals of organizing and conducting sanitary surveillance and medical control over the nutrition of military personnel and the civilian population in field conditions.
Specifics of organizing nutrition under conditions of terrain and object contamination with radioactive and toxic agents, as well as infection with bacterial (biological) agents.

The preparation, distribution, and consumption of food are typically organized outside areas and facilities contaminated with radioactive substances (RS) and toxic chemicals (TC), or infected with biological agents (BA).

If emergency feeding must be arranged within radioactive contamination zones, the following requirements are established: at radiation levels up to 1 rad/h, it is carried out as usual; from 1 rad/h to 5 rad/h, it is permitted inside decontaminated facilities (structures); above 5 rad/h, only inside closed-type decontaminated facilities (structures). Under these conditions, canned goods and food concentrates are best used for cooking, as they are more reliably protected against weapons of mass destruction and allow food to be prepared in a shorter time.

In areas contaminated with TC, preparing and consuming food is permitted only in special structures equipped with filter-ventilation units for air purification.

In areas infected with BA, food preparation and distribution are allowed only after reliable preliminary disinfection of the territory where field food preparation points are located. Food may be consumed only by personnel (affected population) who have undergone full sanitary Processing, and it must be eaten from disinfected utensils.

It is strictly forbidden to consume food and Water contaminated with RS, TC, or infected with BA.

Upon leaving contamination (infection) areas, the degree of radioactive and chemical contamination of personnel, field kitchens, kitchenware, food, and water is determined. Testing for BA contamination is not performed, as establishing the fact of BA use is sufficient to proceed with disinfection.

Field kitchens and all equipment are decontaminated by washing with water several times to reach permissible contamination levels. For their degassing, appropriate degassing solutions are applied, or they are washed with hot water and soap or degreasing agents. Disinfection is carried out using appropriate solutions. Personnel performing these Procedures must wear individual Skin and respiratory/Vision protection equipment. Cooks may resume work only after undergoing special processing.

Carrying out special processing is a rather complex process that can only be performed by individuals equipped with the necessary means and special training. Therefore, military units perform such processing only on food products stored in hermetically sealed containers, while all other contaminated food is transferred for processing (if feasible) to specially designated depots or destroyed based on expert evaluation.