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339399
Survey of Firefighters Safety and Health during Overhaul Operations


Monday, November 2, 2015

Evan Casavant, MS, Work Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA
Devan Hawkins, MS, College of Health Science, Department of Work Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA
Introduction: Firefighters face exposure to many dangerous and often unknown chemicals when performing overhaul operations following fires. These exposures can lead to acute and chronic conditions affecting different organs. Very little research has been done into these exposures, despite the significant risk they and the large number of firefighters who face them. To confront this gap in research, a survey was designed and administered to firefighters working in Massachusetts, to assess their behaviors during overhaul operations and the health impacts they may experience following these operations.

Methods: A survey asking about basic demographic information, safety behavior, and health effects during and after overhaul operations was sent by email to about 13,000 firefighters working for one Massachusetts firefighters union. 600 firefighters (5%) responded to the survey. For this analysis, respondents with missing variables were excluded resulting in a sample size of 423 (70% of respondents). Poisson regression was used to assess the cross-sectional association between demographic, behavior, and health variable survey responses.

Results: There were strong associations observed between various demographic variables (rank, experience, age) and both safety behaviors during overhaul (use of personal protective equipment, length of overhaul, bathing after overhaul) and health outcomes (skin irritation, difficulty breathing). In multilevel models several of the demographic to health associations were explained by safety behaviors during overhaul.

Conclusion/Significance: This survey is one of the first to examine the health and safety of firefighters when performing overhaul operations. The associations observed suggest areas where both government and fire department policies can intervene to prevent the health impacts of overhaul operations. The results from this survey have been reported back to the participating firefighters union along with recommendations to limit exposures. Future studies should examine the longitudinal relationship between exposures during overhaul and different health outcomes.

Learning Areas:

Biostatistics, economics
Epidemiology
Occupational health and safety

Learning Objectives:
Describe firefighter activities during overhaul operations. Assess risks faced by firefighters during these activities. Analyze association between demographics, behavior, and outcomes in order to design interventions to limit exposures.

Keyword(s): Epidemiology, Survey

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have worked as an epidemiologist for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for over a year, during which time I have fulfilled numerous coding, data analysis and reporting writing duties. I also have an MS in Occupational Epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where I participated in several research activities.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3205.2: Late Breaker Poster Session: Recent Findings in Public Health Epidemiology