New Study Looks at Health Risks to Wildland Fire Fighters

November 12, 2008 – The Institut de recherché Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) has released its findings concerning the exposures, health effects and recommended protection actions for wildland fire fighters.

This major effort, led by Canadian researcher Dr. Claire Austin, addresses the complex and hazardous environment facing wildland fire fighters, including exposure to potentially toxic substances present in smoke from wildland fires and the resulting health risks to fire fighters. The study also includes documented, independent, health-based recommendations concerning the need for respiratory protection for wildland fire fighting. To review the study, click here.

The IAFF has long endorsed and supported numerous efforts to study the environment and exposures to its members during wildland fire fighting and has called for the development of a respiratory protective equipment standard. The IAFF believes that performance and design criteria must be developed and applied to such a standard to protect wildland fire fighters and drive the development of protective and usable respirators for wildland fire fighting.

Wildland fire fighters face working conditions characterized by extended work periods – day and night – from desert to high mountains, in temperatures from below freezing to above 120°F, and in relative humidity’s ranging from very dry to very humid. Their proximity to the fire can be as close as a couple of feet.

The work done by the wildland fire fighter is manual labor oriented. Fire lines are constructed with hand tools that are used to cut, dig and scrape. Portable power equipment is carried to, and used on, the fire line. Hose lines are also carried and pulled to the fire to provide water. Mechanized equipment such as bulldozers and tractor plows is used where possible.

The fire environment that affects the fire fighter includes smoke and heat. Smoke interferes with respiration making it harder to do a task, thereby increasing overall stress. Heat exposure is not from just the ambient air temperature, but for wildland fire fighters working close to a fire, it can include radiant heat, some convective heat and, in extreme situations, conductive heat.

The fire service should learn from the occupational health experience in New York after the 9/11 attacks. While the New York City fire fighters experienced the largest acute exposure to high volume particulate matter in a modern urban environment, such particulate exposures are unfortunately very similar in a large scale wildland fire.

While particulate matter may be larger in wildland fires, such fires do produce smaller particulate that are normally respirable to the small airways and are a potential cause of asthma and other restricted airway diseases. Also, the larger particulates usually overwhelm the nose and upper airway, thus allowing these particles to enter the lower airways, making asthma and other diseases very likely.

Additionally, it has been documented by studies initiated by the IAFF and conducted by the federal and state of California governments that wildland fires produce other toxic materials including carbon monoxide and a number of carcinogens, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In fact, one such study initiated by the IAFF and conducted by IAFF medical residents found that a 3 percent drop in lung capacity can occur after one week of wildland fire fighting. There is also evidence of permanent lung damage in wildland fire fighters.