The 5 F’s of Field Sanitation: A required understanding (PDF)

The 5 F’s of field sanitation are Fingers, Feces, Food, Flies, and Fluids.

  1. Fingers = Wash your hands, trim your fingernails, and scrub you hands as often as possible. Know that anything you touch is contaminated.
  2. Feces = Have a plan to properly dispose of human waste. Understand how deep it needs to be buried and that it can, and will, attract unusual animals and insects. Try not to contaminate your own water sources or the water sources of others.
  3. Food = Handle food safely, cook throughly, and prevent the contamination of food by not using food stuffs from dubious sources. Also, as the GWOT vets know, avoid using contractors of dubious moral and ethical values. They may poison your food with disease.
  4. Flies = Prevent flies from landing on your face, food, lips, eyes, and fluids. Flies of all types spread disease. Mosquitos can survive in water contaminated by human waste and when they bite you, they will give you a nasty pimple.
  5. Fluids = Make sure that all fluids are clean, potable, and are kept free of other contaminates. Flies are not only attacked to feces and food, but also fluids.

Field Sanitation PDF linked below.

https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/tc4_02x3.pdf

Spread the love
                

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

About the Author: Johnny Paratrooper

Born and Raised in Baltimore City, Maryland. History Degree. 8 Years Airborne Infantry and Scouts Platoon. Iraq Veteran. 4-5 Years as a doorman, bar back, and bouncer in Baltimore. Worked in Construction, Heavy Equipment Demolition, Corporate Security, Sales, Forest Service contractor, and the Hospitality Industry. Raised Catholic. Hobbies are race cars and sport bikes. Side projects are HAM radio credentials and long range shooting. MY EMAIL IS [email protected]. Founder of Green Dragon Academy https://www.patreon.com/GreenDragonAcademy

12 Comments

  1. Luke December 19, 2021 at 13:33

    Thanks for this, I have a feeling it’s the “little things” that will do one in. And let’s face it there’s a shitload of “little things.” Hard to keep track of them all. Let us know how it goes with Covid. Hope you have a speedy recovery and I suspect you will.

  2. Delroy December 19, 2021 at 18:43

    I spent some time in a carribean country that had mountains of garbage everywhere and flies out the wazoo. It was disgusting and the locals don’t even notice. Garbage will pile up quickly in a shtf scenario and it will bring the flies and also rodents which are a huge disease vector. Get alcohol while it’s cheap to disinfect almost anything.

    • Johnny Paratrooper December 20, 2021 at 10:04

      Basic hygiene requires soap and potable water. Alcohol is expensive by comparison, and when used on living tissue it can dry our and damage skin. Soap, a mild soap, is best and will prevent, or solve, about 99% of problems assuming you can keep the pests away, Which is extremely difficult.

      I read a report once and it argued that the sewage system, showers, and washing machines may have contributed as much to the eradication of many diseases as vaccines did. Which, considering the third world still suffers from many diseases despite vaccines, I would argue is accurate.

  3. Tunnel+Rabbit December 20, 2021 at 14:18

    In modern times, we’ve manage to keep these issues in control, but as modern conveniences go away, then the common reasons disease, and the introduction of diseases from the Third World will take us by surprise. The odds that we could repeat history are high, debilitating a huge percentage. It is a very serious issue. Our habits and immune system are no longer geared for primitive environments, and there will be a lack of antibiotics. The best way to deal it is now with preventive measures.

    Cholera could be the worst of these, along with Guardia, TB, Hepatitis, STD’s, and long list of others.. Then there will be trench foot, and frostbite, and minor injuries that become serious due to unabated infections. Sanitation cannot be over emphasized and should be the medic’s concern if you had a medic. Household 3% bleach is becoming expensive and quickly looses it’s potency on the shelf. Pool Shock (calcium hypochlorite) is an inexpensive source of powdered bleach that is difficult to store because it highly corrosive, but can be used to treat water sources, and be a general disinfectant at a 10% solution in the kitchen or clinic, and even as a wound dressing that has been mentioned here, Dakan’s Solution. Water filters, and the ability to boil large amounts of water over an open fire or wood stove, can be used for sanitation and drinking. These are not just good to have option, but essential tools for large groups.

    • Johnny Paratrooper December 20, 2021 at 14:58

      Sanitation is an individual’s task.
      And you don’t need all of those fancy products in the field.
      The manual assumes resources will be scarce.

      Washing your hands is the biggest concern. And properly burying waste.

  4. Tunnel+Rabbit December 20, 2021 at 15:29

    The choice of terms can create confusion and disagreement. I would agree that personal hygiene is the individual’s responsibility. The term ‘sanitation’ is most often associated with an activity of a group of persons. I do not mean to parse words, but support your effort and article that needs as much attention as can be garnered, and thank you for bring this under appreicated topic forward. If we look at the manual, it specifically covers some of the issues I covered, namely, the use of chlorine, and generally, other methods of sanitation, and sources of ”nonbattle” injuries mentioned in my post, .

    …………………………………………………………………………………………. Index-1
    Tables
    Table 1-1. Percentage of disease and nonbattle injury rates in contemporary
    operations …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1-1
    Table A-1. Chlorine dose calculator using five percent unscented household bleach
    and 70 percent high-test hypochlorite ……………………………………………………….. A-3
    Table A-2. Equivalent volumes chart ………………………………………………………………………… A-3
    Table A-3. Instructions for using the chlorination kit (water purification) …………………………. A-5
    Table A-4. Chlorination kit (water purification) tablet or powder sachet addition
    instructions ……………………………………………………………………………………………. A-6

    • Johnny Paratrooper December 20, 2021 at 15:52

      You are correct. But those products don’t store well in a pack and they dissolve most containers. Also, I believe you are only supposed to drink chlorinated water for no more than 30 days. It’s not good for you long term. I believe it weakens your bones when used long term.

      Many military manuals are oriented towards a battalion sized element. Which is about 800 men or more. There are much better options for field sanitation for the partisan. Modern water purifiers are amazing.

      Hand soap, eating utensils, and baby wipes are your greatest ally against disease.

    • Johnny Paratrooper December 20, 2021 at 15:56

      Chapter 2
      Individual Preventive Medicine Measures
      SOLDIER RESPONSIBILITIES
      2-1. Regulations state that individual Soldiers are responsible for their own well-being. For example, AR 40-5 states that every Soldier is responsible for his own well-being and that he will implement and employ all protective measures possible to preserve his health. Each Soldier, as a minimum, will protect against—
       Skindiseasesbywashingthebodyasoftenaspracticable.
       Heat injury in hot and sunny climates by following work or rest and water consumption guidelines, by properly adhering to uniform wear policies, and by using sunscreen on exposed body parts.
       Cold injury in cold climates by wearing proper cold-weather clothing and frequently changing socks to keep feet dry, by careful handling of gasoline-type liquids, and by avoiding contact between skin and cold metal.
       Mosquito, fly, tick, and other arthropod-borne diseases by using insect repellents, netting, and insecticide aerosols; by taking approved chemoprophylaxis; and by wearing the uniform properly.
       Enteric (gastrointestinal) diseases by using water purification procedures whenever water quality is uncertain and by avoiding foods prepared by unapproved food vendors, and by properly disposing of bodily wastes. (Refer to Appendix A for water disinfection techniques and procedures).

    • Johnny Paratrooper December 20, 2021 at 15:57

      Page 8

      BREAKDOWN IN BASIC HYGIENE AND SANITATION PRACTICES
      1-6. Basic hygiene and sanitation practices may begin to breakdown when Soldiers are not able to readily and regularly access potable water, safe rations, showers, latrines, and laundry facilities. Soldiers may become apathetic and begin neglecting their personal hygiene and fail to properly dispose of potentially hazardous solid and human waste products.

      • Johnny Paratrooper December 20, 2021 at 15:58

        Soldiers become used to being dirty and tired. Which leads to poor hygienic practices. Which in turn leads to disease.

        • Tunnel+Rabbit December 20, 2021 at 17:32

          Wish I had time to get into it, but it will have to suffice to say that sanitation begins with individual hygiene, whether limited to squad level or larger. Sodium hypochlorite is cheap so I have lots of it, and it is compact. One pound can great a huge amount of water, perhaps as much as 100,000 gallons. Soap will also be in limited supply, so chlorine can be a good option to be used on food preparation surfaces to personal hygiene, to shocking contaminated wells, to providing a small community with potable water from a cistern or deep well. The larger the group or community, the more important sanitation is in general.

          Boiling water is useful no matter the size of the group, a practice not appreciated in modern times that precludes the use of soap, filters, and chemicals and can be used to clean clothes with minimal amounts, or no soap, to sanitizing eating utensils, and wound dressings. Living off grid in austere conditions for many years has helped me appreciate that combining the three techniques of sanitation, we can conserve limited resource, i.e. soap, and chlorine, by shrewd manage of our finite resources. For example, instead of using soap, or bleach, we can boil under clothes and socks. These items are then thoroughly sanitized and not degraded by chlorine.

          In this example, we therefore conserve soap for hand washing, and spare the chlorine for sterilizing food preparation surfaces for the processing of meat, or some other critical task. The result of wise management of these three key resources and techniques that make this combination versatile, will go further towards our goal of staying effective, regardless if it is one person involved, or many.

          Gotta go, now, and fix the chicken coup and inventory new stock of spare parts for 10 different chainsaws. Up here in the frozen north, keeping the saws working is critical for life as it feeds the wood stove that we cook and heat with. I do not need propane or anything else if I got wood. BTW, we can actually sterilize medical instruments and bandage material with a pressure cooker on a wood stove, as boiling water is not good enough for the purpose. 45 minutes at 15 pounds is good enough. Almost as good as an autoclave.

          • Johnny Paratrooper December 20, 2021 at 18:20

            Make no mistake, I believe those products have their place.

Comments are closed.

GUNS N GEAR

Categories

Archives

Spread the love