Heat illness in Cyprus.

Abstract

Heat illness in the Armed Forces is an emotive issue. No specific service-wide system currently exists to monitor the incidence of heat illness. Within British Forces Cyprus medical policy guidelines for physical activity at various Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) readings were issued in 1988. A local system for reporting heat casualties was introduced in August 1989. This paper examined retrospectively the reports of heat illness casualties from August 1988 to December 1992 in Cyprus. There was a reduction in reported incidents causing heat casualties over the period studied from 18 incidents in 1990 to 8 in 1992. There was also a reduction in the maximum recorded WBGT reading for each incident. From these results it would seem that there may have been a reduction in preventable heat casualties attributable to commanders following the WBGT guidelines.