Municipal firefighter exposure groups, time spent at fires and use of self‐contained‐breathing‐apparatus

Austin, C. C.; Dussault, G.; Ecobichon, D. J.

doi:10.1002/ajim.10023

Cited by 42 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(23 reference statements)

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“…overhaul, toxic spills). Indeed, it has been documented that a significant proportion of the firefighter's time is spent in a non-fire environment wearing their protective ensemble and using their SCBA 8) . As such, we realized the importance to document the heat-stress associated with wearing a firefighting protective ensemble during ambient conditions that are representative of the warm summer months in temperate climate regions such as Toronto.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Management of Heat Stress for the Firefighter: A Review of Work Conducted on Behalf of the Toronto Fire Service

McLellan

Selkirk

2006

Ind Health

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This report provides a summary of research conducted through a grant provided by the Workplace Safety Insurance Board of Ontario. The research was divided into two phases; first, to define safe work limits for firefighters wearing their protective clothing and working in warm environments; and, the second, to examine strategies to reduce the thermal burden and extend the operational effectiveness of the firefighter. For the first phase, subjects wore their protective ensemble and carried their self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and performed very light, light, moderate or heavy work at 25°C, 30°C or 35°C. Thermal and evaporative resistance coefficients were obtained from thermal manikin testing that allowed the human physiological responses to be compared with modeled data. Predicted continuous work times were then generated using a heat strain model that established limits for increases in body temperature to 38.0°C, 38.5°C and 39.0°C. Three experiments were conducted for the second phase of the project. The first study revealed that replacing the duty uniform pants that are worn under the bunker pants with shorts reduced the thermal strain for activities that lasted longer than 60 min. The second study examined the importance of fluid replacement. The data revealed that fluid replacement equivalent to at least 65% of the sweat lost increased exposure time by 15% compared with no fluid replacement. The last experiment compared active and passive cooling. Both the use of a mister or forearm and hand submersion in cool water significantly increased exposure time compared with passive cooling that involved only removing most of the protective clothing. Forearm and hand submersion proved to be most effective and produced dramatic increases in exposure time that approximated 65% compared with the passive cooling procedure. When the condition of no fluid replacement and passive cooling was compared with fluid replacement and forearm and hand submersion, exposure times were effectively doubled with the latter condition. The heat stress wheel that was generated can be used by Commanders to determine safe work limits for their firefighters during activities that involve wearing their protective clothing and carrying their SCBA.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other aspects of a fire call include overhaul, ventilation, search and rescue and salvage [7][8][9][10] . Additional types of calls can include emergency responses, which incorporate the risk of exposure to unknown agents and/or poor air quality, such as hazardous material spills, suspected terrorist activity and industrial incidents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Management of Heat Stress for the Firefighter: A Review of Work Conducted on Behalf of the Toronto Fire Service

McLellan

Selkirk

2006

Ind Health

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“…Hot zone refers to a hazardous material-contaminated area requiring protective gear and decontamination. 45 See Austin, Dussault, and Ecobichon, 2001. Using these numbers, we estimate that 94.4 percent of exposure is in the frontline firefighter role and that 5.6 percent of exposure is in the C/P personnel and other supporting roles.…”

Section: : Estimate the Reduction In Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, it is difficult to get a precise measure for a given firefighter's reduction in exposure levels from the control measures. For the purposes of this analysis, we used the estimates from Fent and Horn together with an estimate from Austin, Dussault, and Ecobichon, 2001, about the percentage of people who are engaged in frontline firefighting (in the hot zone) at any given time to estimate total reductions in exposure. 45 Taking a weighted average of the percentage reductions that Fent and Horn suggested, along with the percentage of exposure attributed to the different roles, we estimate that exposure is reduced by between 84 percent and 93 percent when the majority of control measures are put into place.…”

Section: : Estimate the Reduction In Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Economic Benefit Associated with Research and Services at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: An Approach and Three Case Studies

Miller¹,

Metz²,

Smith³

et al. 2017

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Limited Print and Electronic Distribution RightsThis document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR2256Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2017 RAND CorporationR® is a registered trademark.iii Preface This report presents and illustrates an approach for estimating economic benefit of research and services at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), using three case studies. Although no set of three case studies can be regarded as fully representative, we selected the cases to represent important variations in NIOSH activities and intended audiences. The report might be of interest to anyone seeking to understand the impacts of research, services, and practice related to worker safety and health. RAND Corporation researchers have published the following related reports:• Eric Landree, Hirokazu Miyake, and Victoria Greenfield, Nanomaterial Safety in RAND Infrastructure Resilience and Environmental PolicyThe research reported here was conducted in the RAND Infrastructure Resilience and Environmental Policy program, which performs analyses on urbanization and other stresses. This includes research on infrastructure development; infrastructure financing; energy policy; urban planning and the role of public-private partnerships; transportation policy; climate response, mitigation, and adaptation; environmental sustainability; and water resource management and coastal protection. Program research is supported by government agencies, foundations, and the private sector.RAND Justice, Infrastructure, and Environment (JIE) conducts research and analysis in civil and criminal justice, infrastructure development and financing, environmental policy, transportation planning and technology, immigration and border protection, public and occupational safety, energy policy, science and innovation policy, space, telecommunications, and trends and implications of artificial intelligence and other computational technologies.Questions or comments about this r...

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“…Of those who wear SCBA for overhaul or salvage, the SCBA was worn 36%-53% of the time. Austin et al [2001a] conducted a study of SCBA use at a large municipal fire department and reported that SCBA was not worn at all during overhaul. Because fire fighters may not consistently wear SCBA during overhaul or investigation phases of a fire response, our measurements of PAHs, VOCs, and particles during these phases are meaningful as they represent potential inhalation exposures.…”

Section: Protective Equipment Use and Other Potential Exposuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health hazard evaluation report: evaluation of dermal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in fire fighters.

2013

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Municipal firefighter exposure groups, time spent at fires and use of self‐contained‐breathing‐apparatus

Abstract: Failure of previous studies to identify homogeneous exposure groups may have resulted in misclassification and underestimates of health risks. The approach used in this study may be used in epidemiological studies to identify exposure/response relationships.

Cited by 42 publications

References 26 publications

The Management of Heat Stress for the Firefighter: A Review of Work Conducted on Behalf of the Toronto Fire Service

The Management of Heat Stress for the Firefighter: A Review of Work Conducted on Behalf of the Toronto Fire Service

Understanding the Economic Benefit Associated with Research and Services at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: An Approach and Three Case Studies

Health hazard evaluation report: evaluation of dermal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in fire fighters.

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