Opening Address by Minister for Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen, for the Launch of Heat Resilience and Performance Centre (HRPC) at National University of Singapore on 11 January 2023

Chief Defence Scientist, Mr Tan Peng Yam,

Chief of Army, Major General David Neo,

HRPC Co-Chairs,

Chief Executive Officer DSO, Mr Cheong Chee Hoo,

Chief of Staff - General Staff, Brigadier General Tan Cheng Kwee,

Dean NUSMED, Professor Chong Yap Seng,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Introduction

I am happy that we can all gather to launch this Heat Resilience and Performance Centre, or HRPC. It is obvious that the SAF needs this facility to make it safer for our soldiers to train and operate in the hot humid climate of Singapore and elsewhere. We cannot move Singapore, we are in the equatorial region, so heat must be our core business. With global warming, some places will grow hotter and cooler, but you can be sure that Singapore would not be very cold. I am glad that the National University of Singapore, DSO National Laboratories and the Singapore Armed Forces have put together their commitment and resources to establish this new HRPC.

As every National Servicemen past and present, and regular soldier knows from his own personal experience, indeed, any sporting enthusiast or competitor, even the recreational athlete, heat exhaustion from strenuous exercise in Singapore is a real risk. At MINDEF and the SAF, we monitor it and we take it very seriously. We monitor every case of heat exhaustion or worse, heat stroke, because they can lead to fatalities. Every month, at our meetings, detailed data is provided to scrutinise all cases of heat exhaustion and stroke so it is a routine. Data is presented, not just broad statistics, but individual items of that soldier on that incident. We ask if safety protocols were observed, whether there were water parades and other cooling measures, whether training times were exceeded, whether the ambient wet bulb temperature was within training limits. We scrutinise to make sure there was not a lapse, and if there was one, how do we rectify it. We take it very seriously and we watch it with hawk eyes.

Because we know we have lost soldiers to heat strokes. Soldiers have died, precious sons. We want to do everything within our means and more to prevent this from happening again. Thankfully because of our new heat injury preventive measures, we have not had a heat stroke fatality for the last 4 years. We want to keep it at zero but it takes constant attention, constant hard work of commanders, of the buddies, of the individual soldier to make sure it does not happen. The fact that we have not had a fatality gives us some comfort that if we pay enough attention, you can get results. But the challenge is this – for us situated at the equator, this challenge will be even harder in the future because of global warming. Compared to 30 years ago, the average annual mean temperature has gone up by approximately 0.3°C, from 27.4 to 27.7°C. As every physician knows, our bodies are very temperature sensitive. It makes a difference. I am not sure what it will be in 2100, which this video says that it will go up many degrees, some of it conjecture, some of it true, but I think it is a safe bet that it will get hotter. So we have to deal with this.

According to experts, it will get hotter if climate change is not abated. As the video rightly points out, even with all the measures, it will take time. We can all imagine the impact of rising ambient temperatures not only on the SAF’s training, but on work and life in Singapore in general. And for work and daily activities, I think for those who are working in air-condition, like us here now, I think it may be hot outside but the temperature is quite cool indoors. Maybe the first thing that HRPC should do is to match the ambient temperature outside. But the SAF cannot train in air-conditioned comfort. There is no such thing. We have to train realistically, it is hot, you will sweat and you are at risk. We have to adapt and adjust to find new and better ways to deal with this increasing challenge.

MINDEF/SAF’s Efforts to Prevent Heat Injuries

This is exactly what we have been doing for the past decade, our MINDEF/SAF/DSO doctors, scientists and engineers have been working with other national experts to deal decisively with and prevent heat injuries. As more soldiers are exposed to more vigorous physical activity particularly during BMT, attention is paid to adequate rest cycles and to watch for early signs of heat stress. We do not want to down play training because that negates the whole purpose of National Service and the building of strong defence. But, training must be safe. Because each son is precious to the family and to his friends, and we want to make sure that first of all, we can prevent it. And if we cannot, we want to detect it early so it does not get serious. Heat cooling measures such as adequate hydration and arms immersion in ice water are now standard practice.

We also get to conduct real-time monitoring of body temperature for selected soldiers. They swallow a temperature “pill” which measures their core temperature continuously and transmits that data to a handheld device for commanders to monitor. That is the most sensitive, in other words, if you go on for a 10km route march, you may start out fine. But anywhere along the route march, if you are susceptible to heat stroke, how can we tell? Especially if the whole battalion is there, how do I monitor each one as each one is precious. We want to be able to detect this so that we can stop the activity if any soldier’s core temperature exceeds a threshold.

These measures collectively have brought down the occurrence of heat exhaustion cases over the last decade, with more than 50% reduction in some years and there has been zero heat stroke cases since 2019. We have to continue to keep up these efforts, and enhance them to keep our soldiers safe and I think this facility today that we are launching will be a crucial enabler.

Leveraging Local and International Expertise

As you have seen from the video, the HRPC will formalise the collaboration with NUS – it is already a leading institution in the science of heat health, human potential, and climate change. And these are areas of growing concerns that are good research efforts that will feed into national initiatives such as the Cooling Singapore and Project HEATSAFE, to deal with the rising temperatures in Singapore.

The pool of local experts or even in the international experts in this heat injury prevention is limited. The HRPC will tap into the best-in-class researchers, both local and overseas. Today, HRPC has scientific exchanges with foreign universities and military research institutes such as the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Sydney, and US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. Suffice to say that the work of this centre will not be only be a great interest locally but internationally because we will not be alone in dealing with this problem. But we need to bring in fresh and diverse ideas, vibrancy, and innovative solutions because this problem for Singapore will be particularly acute and severe.

HRPC’s Key Research Thrusts

The Centre will sharpen focus on three key research areas.

11. First, it hopes to systematically compile all previous and current data on heat injuries. Previously, you would have to go through with a fine tooth comb to collect the details. Thankfully with high power computing, this is one area where you can use analytics to facilitate the discovery of previously unrecognised associations so that you can predict who is more likely to be heat stressed, and then test new solutions to see whether you can mitigate against them.

12. Secondly, you want to be able to classify and fine-tune the identification of an individual before they start out to be at risk. And you want to be able to monitor in real time so that training can be stopped and preventive measures applied. I think this is the goal. But as I said, our challenge is that you have to do it for large numbers of people. Because if the whole battalion or even a whole brigade undergoes a strenuous exercise, you're talking about monitoring thousands of soldiers individually at every point of time, not just the beginning and the start but every point in time. Hopefully, it will be AI driven and no limit to scale. To reach this, you need to have easy to wear and accurate sensors that can be applied to the masses. I think it can be done and the technology is there. What it takes is commitment, imagination, and a passion because this affects our lives. Every time we have heat exhaustion, heat stroke, we must say there has to be a system that could have prevented it. That is the way you have to move towards so that we can keep our precious sons safe.

HRPC will also test more efficient cooling strategies. It will bring in the whole menu of possibilities including advanced clothing material, which can reflect more UV radiation. We can all agree that this work of HRPC will be important for the health of not only our soldiers, but the general public as our ambient temperature rises.

So we are here today to give you support. Let me try to ignite a new passion that what you are doing makes a real difference, translates to lives saved because remember, soldiers have died because of heatstroke. That must be our ultimate motivation to prevent every death.

Conclusion

I wish NUS, DSO and the SAF all the best as they commit to this crucial work for HRPC. HRPC’s work can save lives so we must all be fully committed to helping it achieve its goals.

Thank you.

More Resources

Dr Ng: Innovative Heat Mitigation Strategies to Ensure Safe and Effective Training and Operations

Fact Sheet: Heat Resilience and Performance Centre

Infographic: Creating Solutions to Enhance Heat Resilience