I recently had the honor of attending and speaking at the annual Fire Department Safety Officers Association meeting held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. I was joined in a panel discussion by Keith Tyson, representing the Firefighter Cancer Support Network and Rick Mason, representing the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, while I represented the International Association of Fire Chief’s Safety, Health & Survival Section.
The meeting focused on the increasing awareness and related efforts toward occupational cancer risk and risk reduction. NIOSH has certainly raised the bar on the awareness of occupational exposure from fire service work. Risk reduction discussions are continually focusing on PPE enhancements, aggressive protection and decontamination after any potential exposure and the continual cultural evolvement of risk reduction as acceptable norms in the fire service.
The continual loss of fire service members to both line-of-duty deaths and disabilities from preventable cardiovascular causes was also a common call to arms, including the reality of obesity being a strong contributory factor for many through the nation, with firefighters not being immune. Additionally, work done by our research community has validated that physiological changes occur during firefighting making firefighters more susceptible to cardiovascular events on the fireground. Presentations during the conference focused on nutrition, fitness and successful weight-loss efforts by fire departments who have tackled this challenge proactively.
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Finally, the third leg of the trifecta that was “abuzz” was the need for mandatory annual physicals that are non-punitive and aimed at early screening and detection of life-threatening health conditions such as cancers and cardiovascular risk that, if identified, can be corrected and/or managed successfully. The 160 or so attendees heard real-world examples of successful implementation of mandatory physicals through a joint labor management approach and how firefighters’ lives were saved in the process.
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