firefighter health Archives - Page 21 of 23

Cancer risk and smoke exposure among wildland firefighters

Bill GabbertApril 23, 2010March 25, 2019Uncategorizedcancer, firefighter health, research, smoke & health6 Comments

(Note: after we wrote this article, more information came to light, and we wrote a follow-up piece.)

NIOSH and the U.S. Fire Administration are conducting a study of cancer among firefighters. I talked with the physician/epidemiologist, Dr. Tom Hales, who is a co-investigator for the study which began in October, 2009 led by Travis Kubale, the study’s primary project officer. He said that over the next four years they will study firefighters from three fire departments: San Francisco, Chicago, and the District of Columbia. They will look at the causes of death of firefighters that have worked for the departments over the last 50 years and compare that with tumor registries in their local communities and the National Death Index for cause of death.

Dr. Hales said that they will ask the firefighters in the study if they have ever worked on wildland fires, but other than that, they will not collect data on firefighters who specialize in wildland fires. He also said that NIOSH has no plans to specifically study cancer rates among wildland firefighters, but emphasized that NIOSH has collected data on smoke exposure on active wildfires and prescribed fires (see below).

What about wildland firefighters?

It is unfortunate that wildland firefighters will not be evaluated in this study, but you have to consider that the probably-flawed TriData study only looked at structural firefighters, and the IAFF and IAFC who helped to push for this new study spend most of their energy and political capital on structural fire.

There needs to be a concerted effort to conduct a similar study on wildland firefighters. It should be led by a physician/epidemiologist and should evaluate the long term health and occurrence of cancer and other diseases among wildland firefighters. There is a lot of grant money out there and it should be possible to get some of it pointed towards this overlooked niche of firefighting.

Wildfire Today is calling out the following organizations to get together and put some pressure on FEMA, NIOSH, and the U.S. Fire Administration to get this done:

National Park Service
Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Bureau of Indian Affairs
U. S. Forest Service
National Wildfire Coordinating Group and their Risk Mgt. Comm.
State land management agencies
International Association of Wildland Fire
International Association of Fire Chiefs
International Association of Fire Fighters
Federal Wildland Fire Service Association

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Below are links to studies about smoke exposure on wildfires, as well as excerpts from a bibliography on the same subject.

Continue reading “Cancer risk and smoke exposure among wildland firefighters”

Wildfire news, July 8, 2009

BillJuly 8, 2009August 25, 2019Uncategorizedfirefighter health, siren

After 90 years, Whitefish, MT fire siren is silent

The Whitefish, MT fire siren. Lifo Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon photo

After 90 years of summoning volunteer firefighters to staff the fire engines, the siren in Whitefish, Montana is being shut down because it exceeded the noise levels issued by OSHA and the NFPA. Whitefish fire chief Tom Kennelly said the noise was too loud for the full time staff that now reside in the fire station, just 20 feet from the siren’s many horns.

More information

History of firefighting helicopters

Forest protection supervisor Jack Dillon experiments with a water nozzle in a Bell 47D-1 owned by the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests around the early 1950s. The pilot is Shorty Ferguson. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Photo

Verticle On Line, “The Pulse of the Helicopter Industry”, has an interesting article about the history of helicopters used in fighting fire.

Charles Barkley donates to fire victims

Ex-NBA star Charles Barkley has donated another large sum of money to the victims of the June, 2007 Angora fire which destroyed over 250 homes. A year ago Mr. Barkley gave $100,000 to South Tahoe’s Commuinity Disaster Resource Center. Last week the center received another check from him, this time for $90,000. Shortly after the 2007 fire, Mr. Barkley hosted a dinner for 100 firefighters.

Study: No increased wildfire risk in spotted owl habitat

From the AP:

A new study challenges a basic justification about the threat of wildfires that the Bush administration used to make room for more logging in old growth forests that are home to the northern spotted owl.

The study, appearing in the journal Conservation Biology, found no increasing threat of severe wildfires destroying old growth forests in the drier areas where the owl lives in Oregon, Washington and Northern California.

“The argument used to justify a massive increase in logging under the (spotted owl) recovery program was not based on sound science,” said Chad T. Hanson, a fire and forest ecologist at the University of California, Davis, who was lead author of the study. “The recovery plan took a leap-before-you-look approach and did it without sound data.”

Li’l Smokey children’s book published

Adam Deem, the CalFire firefighter who found and rescued the injured bear cub on the northern California fire last year has written a children’s book about the bear. The book costs $11.99 and Mr. Deem says a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, where “Li’l Smokey” was nursed back to health.

Snags on the Backbone fire

The Backbone fire, which is being managed by the Atlanta National Incident Management Organization team, is in an area that burned in the 1999 Megram fire. Snags are one of the hazards faced by the firefighters. The fire has burned 4,584 acres in the Trinity Alps Wilderness in northern California and is 25% contained.

Embers burn more homes than flame impingement on some wildfires

The Missoulian has an article about the study completed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology which Wildfire Today first told you about on June 19.

Here is a brief excerpt:

The report found that “out of the 74 destroyed structures, 38 were on the perimeter and the remaining 36 in the interior of the community.”

“Forty percent of homes on the perimeter were destroyed, compared to 20 percent in the interior. In the interior of the community, structure losses were a result of exposure to embers generated from burning wildland and residential vegetation and structural fuels,” according to the report.

Storing carbon vs. thinning forests

A new study concludes that forests are a great way to store carbon to offset global warming, but scientists say thinning would reduce this beneficial effect.

Thanks Dick and Kelly.

USFA issues statement about TriData presumptive cancer report

BillApril 30, 2009September 9, 2018Uncategorizedcancer, firefighter health

The United States Fire Administration has issued a statement regarding the very controversial report that was written by TriData a few weeks ago. As Wildfire Today covered on April 20, the report, which gathered information from some selected studies, discounts some links between cancer occurance and firefighters. The National League of Cities (NLC) paid TriData to complete the report. The IAFF and the IAFC think the NLC is trying to eliminate presumptive cancer legislation for firefighters.

The USFA statement is HERE (link no longer works), but below are some excerpts:

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The United States Fire Administration (USFA) has completed its review of a recently released study conducted by the TriData Division of the System Planning Corporation, analyzing firefighter presumptive cancer legislation and attempting to prove or disprove a correlation between firefighting activities and the occurrence of cancer. While this study is considered thoughtful and well-presented, its results are scientifically inconclusive, and indicate that more expansive study is in order.

Acting United States Fire Administrator Glenn A. Gaines noted, “The results of this report clearly indicate that more study and analysis is necessary. It is much too early to abandon presumptive laws and benefits for firefighters who present with cancers. To make such a quantum leap at this point in time may be premature.”

As a long time partner of all of the nation’s firefighters and fire service organizations, USFA has regularly and continually supported research efforts, specific training, and other initiatives focusing on firefighter wellness and safety issues.

“As with all truly professional disciplines, the fire service must be willing to support independent third party research and reviews of our profession as well as its actions and approaches,” said Administrator Gaines. “Just as importantly, and like other professions, we must also focus on prevention and mitigation strategies limiting exposure to toxins and carcinogens by firefighters, be they career or volunteer.”

Future research efforts in the area of firefighter cancer must recognize the myriad dangers faced by firefighters throughout our country, be it asbestos in the older factories of the east, chemical and plating plants in the Midwest, or wildland fires that occur each year throughout the country.

Any future studies must include methodologies to adequately recognize those firefighters who have already experienced legacy exposures, and must include definitive measures of the effectiveness of the improved PPE, decontamination equipment, and diesel exhaust systems placed in service over the past decade.

Firefighter/cancer link update

BillApril 21, 2009January 25, 2011Uncategorizedcancer, firefighter health

From FirefighterCloseCalls:

FF CANCER UPDATE: THE IAFC AND IAFF RESPOND TO TriData/NLC Document:
As you are aware, last week, the National League of Cities released an irresponsible, misleading and confusing document produced by a management consulting firm, TriData, incredibly claiming there is no relationship between fire fighting and certain cancers. The NLC has worked against every single piece of presumptive legislation that protects fire fighters and their families….and it appears they will go to any length on their mission to save their paying membership cities money…no matter what.

The IAFF and the IAFC are on this …and will be providing factual information related to the issues of fire fighting cancer. Both the IAFC and IAFF are ardent supporters of cancer presumption laws, and are deeply concerned about the impact this report (paid for by the NLC) may have on the truth and clear facts related to critical fire fighter protections, as well as future health and safety research.

The IAFC, through the IAFC Safety, Health and Survival Section, and the IAFF, have each assembled high-level teams consisting of doctorate-level academicians, medical physicians and fire service safety and health experts to thoroughly evaluate the report and provide a complete assessment and facts.

Please watch for more factual information via email, on the IAFF website, as well as the IAFC and IAFC Safety, Health and Survival Section websites and related media..

www.IAFF.org

www.IAFC.org

www.IAFCSafety.org

www.FireFighterCancerSupport.org

FEMA study shows firefighters at high risk for heart disease

BillMarch 18, 2009September 20, 2018Uncategorizedfirefighter health

On March 14 Wildfire Today reported on a study by the University of Kansas that found firefighters are more likely to have prematurely narrowed arteries, which increases their risk for strokes and heart attacks. The data shows that 22 percent of a group of 77 firefighters studied by researchers at the University of Kansas averaged 39 years old but had the blood vessels of 52-year-olds because of significant plaque buildup in their carotid arteries.

Now a FEMA-sponsored study on 300 firefighters in Georgia has more information that will be of concern to firefighters.

H. Robert Superko, MD, principal investigator in the landmark FEMA-sponsored study of firefighters aged 40 and over conducted at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, released preliminary findings in the world’s first study of first responders at risk of suffering sudden death or other significant cardiac events. Firefighters are known to have a three hundred percent increased risk for cardiac disease as compared to other segments of the population.

“Preliminary findings show that one third of firefighters had heart disease that is unrelated to traditional risk factors, such as high cholesterol,” says Dr. Superko. “Those results are astounding and point at job duties and environment as the primary determinants for early death in our country’s first responders.”

Dr. Superko, recognized as a leading expert on lipids, cholesterol and advanced metabolic markets and their contribution to heart disease, and his team performed a comprehensive, scientific battery of sophisticated blood and imaging tests on three hundred firefighters in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Gwinnett County first responders were identified for the study following an emotional report by Fire Chief Steve Rolader, following the sudden death of one of his firefighters from cardiac arrest while fighting a house fire.

“This wasn’t the first firefighter in my department to die but I wanted to do something to make it among the last,” says Chief Rolader. “This man was 53 years old, in great physical shape and he had no known symptoms of heart disease. We also had lost several newly-retired firefighters to sudden cardiac death. There had to be a way to stop it.”

Wildfire news, February 27, 2009

BillFebruary 27, 2009March 3, 2015UncategorizedEsperanza fire, firefighter health, siren

Siren maker loses civil suit about hearing loss

Federal Signal, a company that makes sirens and light bars for emergency vehicles, lost a civil suit filed by nine firefighters in Cook County, Ill. who claimed they suffered hearing loss from exposure to loud fire-truck sirens. The company, which has successfully warded off many previous hearing-loss lawsuits, says they will appeal the decision and they will “fight aggressively to overturn this verdict.”

Australian fires

The town of Marysville. February 12, 2009. Photo: AAP

The southerly wind change that was expected to increase the threat of fires near Melbourne is occurring more slowly than expected but should reach the area in a matter of hours. Firefighters have been able to keep the four large fires that are still uncontrolled from spreading further.

Esperanza fire trial

In closing arguments on Thursday, the attorney defending Raymond Oyler, on trial for setting the 2006 Esperanza fire in southern California in which five USFS firefighters died, said his client DID set as many as 11 arson fires in 2006 but not the Esperanza fire. The attorney said that even though all of the fires were set with combinations of wooden matches and cigarettes, the way they were configured for the Esperanza fire was different from the other fires.

Oyler’s girlfriend told police he had bragged to her about setting fires and was disappointed that they were not larger. When she threatened to leave him if he kept setting the fires, he quit for six months, Michael Hestrin, the prosecutor said.

Hestrin told the jury, “Raymond Oyler set this fire and killed these five brave men. Hold him accountable for murder. That’s what he did. He killed these men.”

The jury began deliberations this morning at 9:15 after the judge gave them their instructions.

If you have information about the trial, send us an email (click on my photo at the very bottom of the page) or call us on the phone by clicking the “Call Me” button on the right side of this page.

Esperanza fire photo gallery

The LA Times has a collection of 16 photos of the Esperanza fire. Here is one.

UPDATE: 6:55 P.M. PT, Feb. 27

The jury ended their first day of deliberations on Friday without reaching a verdict. The four-man, eight-woman panel will resume deliberations at 9 a.m. Monday.