Female Firefighter Work-Related Injuries in the United States and Canada: An Overview of Survey Responses

Pawer, Samantha; Turcotte, Kate; Desapriya, Ediriweera B. R.; Zheng, Alex; Purewal, Amanat; Wellar, Alyssa; Kunz, Kenneth; Garis, Len; Thomas, Larry; Pike, Ian

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.861762

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Polish and foreign literature list several works on the physical fitness of firefighters, and the influence of fitness on the effective implementation of rescue operations. Garano (23) showed that ballbased team sports played by firefighters while on duty bring financial consequences to the system in the form of prolonged indisposition of injured firefighters, the need for replacements, as well as injury compensation for injured officers. In some cases, an injury suffered during a ball game may be the reason for early retirement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sports-related injuries sustained by officers of the State Fire Service on duty – nationwide 7-year follow-up

Dudziński,

Panczyk,

Kubiak

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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AimThe accident rate in the State Fire Service from 2015 to 2021 related to sports activities was analyzed in relation to the regions of the country per year.Materials and methodsThe study included analysis of data from the SFS Headquarters – Department for Occupational Health and Safety and Preventive Health. Data collected from across the country in the form of an annual analysis of the accident. The reports included such information as: the number of accidents, the cause and circumstances of accident (injury), with a breakdown listing individual and group accidents.ResultsDuring the observation period, about 30,000 officers were on duty in the SFS, of which about 20% were on daily (8-h) duty, and 80% were on shift (24-h) duty. Between 2015 and 2021, there were N = 11,332 (Mean: 1617.4; SD: 284.1) accidents in SFS. Total accident covers individual and mass accidents. The number of sports injuries was N = 4,254 (Mean: 532.2; SD: 137.9).ConclusionThere is a need for comprehensive approach to physical training in the firefighter population. Physical activity should be continuous and systematic strengthening of the whole body. Sports activities should begin with performing thorough warm-ups. It is necessary to maintain facilities, premises, equipment and technical devices in a condition that sets the ground for doing sports safely and in a hygienic manner. Most of the sports injuries sustained by firefighters are related to team sports.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sports-related injuries sustained by officers of the State Fire Service on duty – nationwide 7-year follow-up

Dudziński,

Panczyk,

Kubiak

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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“…Approval to conduct this study was provided by the University of British Columbia Children’s and Women’s Research Ethics Board (H18-03318). The survey was advertised on industry-specific magazine sites and blogs and via postings and email lists by agencies as described by Pawer et al ( 22 ), and snowball sampling was employed ( 23 ). The purpose of the study was to describe work-related injury and cancer experiences among female firefighters.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Respondents were asked to provide information on their demographics, lifestyle (e.g., tobacco and alcohol use), firefighter career (e.g., department, rank), work-related injuries, and cancer and precancer diagnoses, as described by Pawer et al ( 22 ). Other lifestyle information considered in this study include hormone use, experience of full-term pregnancy and delivery and if the respondent had breastfed, and family history of cancer.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cancer in female firefighters: The clinicobiological, psychological, and social perspectives

Kunz

Turcotte

Pawer

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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ObjectivesThis study explored how demographic characteristics, life experiences, and firefighting exposures have an impact on cancer among female firefighters, and described the types and biologic characteristics of cancers as reported by women in the fire service.MethodsThe online survey was available from June 2019 to July 2020. Questions related to demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, firefighting exposures, and cancer diagnoses. Descriptive analyses characterized variables by the presence or absence of cancer. Qualitative data provided insight into both firefighting and cancer experiences among women.ResultsThere were 1,344 female firefighter respondents from 12 different countries, 256 of whom provided information on their cancer diagnosis. North American respondents made up 92% of the total. Those with cancer were older, had been in the fire service longer, had more career fires and toxic exposures, and were less likely to still be in active service. They also reported more tobacco use, and more full-term pregnancies. There were no differences in family history of cancer between the two groups. The average age at diagnosis was 39.0 years. The major types of cancer reported included breast (25.4%), cervical (21.1%), melanoma (20.7%), base cell/skin (16.4%), and uterine (14.8%). The cancer was detected when seeking medical attention for symptoms (42.1%), during routine health screening (29.8%), and during specific cancer screening (28.1%). The stage of cancer was reported by 44.5%, and 30.9% included the histopathological grade. Treatments included surgery (72.7%), chemotherapy (14.8%), radiotherapy (13.7%), and observation (13.7%). Challenges associated with cancer included psychosocial (33.2%), financial (18.8%), physical (6.6%), and spiritual (6.3%). Concerns about reporting a cancer experience to their employer included the desire to keep health information private (11.3%), a feeling of vulnerability (7.4%), and being perceived as weak (7.0%). Lack of support from their employer or insurer was also noted.ConclusionFemale firefighters experienced a wide variety of different types of cancers which may come earlier than similar cancers in the public. These findings can help inform resource allocation, the development of new policies, and the need for broader presumptive coverage to support female firefighters diagnosed with cancer.

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“…The statistical analysis of the body parts injured for FFs is shown in Table 6. The evaluation of the data reported in the open literature was based on six of the fifteen independent studies, which identified and evaluated information related to body parts injured during firefighting activities [36,40,42,43,46,47]. Additionally, considering that the NFPA-published data on injuries was just discretized and reported since 2015, the data collected and analyzed in this study for the NFPA only considered the percentage of body parts injured from 2015 to 2019 [48].…”

Section: Analysis and Ranking Of Body Parts Injuredmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review and Statistical Analysis of U.S. Structural Firefighting Injuries: Their Causes and Effects

Garcia,

Bazzocchi,

Fite

et al. 2024

Fire

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Safety and prevention of injuries should always be considered in a firefighting environment due to the hazardous conditions experienced on the fireground. These hazardous environmental conditions lead to an increased risk of contracting job-related injuries and illnesses. This review article focuses on evaluating from a statistical perspective the potential solutions found in the literature and how they decrease the likelihood and impact of occupational firefighting injuries. Investigating, identifying, and prioritizing the most common activities leading to injury, the nature of injury, and the body parts affected is a vital step in the implementation of preventive solutions. The scientific community has conducted various studies to evaluate the main injuries and injury profiles commonly suffered by firefighters. Researchers have conducted many independent studies on firefighter communities in the United States, while others have referenced national databases from sources such as the National Fire Protection Association, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. Unfortunately, the results of these independent studies lacked standardization in survey categories and terminology, impairing the ability to obtain a clear consensus among studies on the primary nature of injuries, the body parts injured, and the activities contributing to these injuries. Consequently, this review article performed a comparative statistical analysis of published data between 1992 and 2020 to define and rank the most common work scenarios where firefighters were likely to be injured, the most common types of injuries, the parts of the body affected, and the activities that most contribute to United States firefighter injuries as documented in both national databases and independent research surveys. The statistical analysis consisted of determining the mean, standard deviation, confidence intervals (95%), and coefficients of variation for the reported data. The present study identified that despite the preventative measures taken by many organizations in the firefighting community, strains and sprains were still the leading type of injury reported from all the databases under this analysis.

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Female Firefighter Work-Related Injuries in the United States and Canada: An Overview of Survey Responses

Cited by 5 publications

References 21 publications

Sports-related injuries sustained by officers of the State Fire Service on duty – nationwide 7-year follow-up

Sports-related injuries sustained by officers of the State Fire Service on duty – nationwide 7-year follow-up

Cancer in female firefighters: The clinicobiological, psychological, and social perspectives

Review and Statistical Analysis of U.S. Structural Firefighting Injuries: Their Causes and Effects

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