The National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health, or NIOSH, plans to kick off a new study that will investigate the health risks encountered by firefighters. While firefighters face a barrage of risks every day, the NIOSH study will focus on long term, subtle dangers such as the exposure to hazardous chemicals present in smoke and superheated air.
One of the aspects of the NIOSH study will be concerned with the firefighters’ exposure to asbestos during firefighting operations.
Asbestos exposure has long been linked with a wide variety of illnesses and conditions ranging from respiratory difficulties, to scarring of the lungs, to mesothelioma – a rare, aggressive and terminal cancer that attacks the tissue which lines our body’s organs. Mesothelioma affects thousands of people in the United States each year, most of whom are exposed to asbestos through their workplace.
Asbestos materials were used fervently throughout the United States through most of the twentieth century. After the hazard they pose to human health became inarguably clear in the 1980′s, their use, handling procedures and disposal methods became strictly regulated. Asbestos’s surprising fire retardant properties made it specifically useful in fireproofing all kinds of buildings with insulation, wallboard, caulk, tile and other materials mixed with asbestos fibers.
This historic usage of asbestos products could spell trouble for firefighters. During a house or building fire, loose asbestos fibers present in a home’s materials do not burn up, but instead rise into the air due to the incredible heat. It’s possible that this phenomena could create large pockets of asbestos contaminated air around raging house fires or or building fires, putting firefighters not wearing masks and passersby in danger of inhaling the carcinogenic fibers.
NIOSH will combine efforts with the United States Fire Administration to better understand firefighters’ health risks, and to analyze the effects of exposure to the smoke and debris present in burning buildings. While it’s already understood that firefighters face countless toxins and carcinogens such as asbestos and even formaldehyde in the workplace, the long term effects have never been accurately recorded.
The study will take several years to complete, and will involve as many as some 18,000 current and retired firefighters. While firefighting involves certain well understood immediate risks of bodily injury or even death, the NIOSH hopes this new study will uncover silent, long term dangers that could be mitigated.
