Quantity-Distance (QD) criteria represents physical limits which cannot be breached without incurring risks, and acceptance of these risks at the appropriate command level. QD applies the “Cardinal Principle” of Explosives Safety which is to expose the least amount of people to the least amount of explosives for the least amount of time. QD experts (Explosives Safety Specialist) determine the risk of exposure by examining blast, fragment, and thermal hazards of a given amount of explosive using the net explosives weight (NEW) and applying accepted protection principles to determine levels of hazard a person is exposed to at a given distance from the explosives. The quantity (amount of NEW) and a given distance from the explosive equals the QD. There are factors that can be used to provide some protection from the effects of the detonation of explosives; however the effects of a blast wave from an explosion cannot be mitigated. Only distance from the blast will provide protection from the blast wave of an explosion.
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