Energy damage and the 10 countermeasure strategies. 1973

This paper is concerned with phenomena, where energy is transferred in such ways and amounts, and at such rates, that inamimate or animate structures are damaged. Several strategies are available, separately or in combination, to reduce the resulting human and economic losses. In logical sequence, they are as follows: (1) preventing the generation of the form of energy; (2) reducing the amount of energy applied; (3) preventing the release of the energy; (4) modifying the rate of spatial distribution of the release of the energy from its source; (5) separating, in space or time, the energy being released from the susceptible structure, whether living or inanimate; (6) placing a material barrier between the energy and the structure; (7) appropriately modifying the contact surface, subsurface, or basic structure, with which people can come into contact; (8) strengthening the living or nonliving structure, that might otherwise be damaged by the energy transfer; (9) rapidly detecting and evaluating damage that has occurred or is occurring, and countering its continuation and extension; and (10) including all the measures between the emergency period, following the energy exchange, and the final stabilisation of the process after appropriate intermediate and long-term repair and rehabilitation measures. (This paper first appeared in Journal of Trauma, Vol. 13, pp 321-331 (1973), and is reprinted as an 'Injury Classic'.)