Evaluation of First Responders’ Biological Monitoring Results After Maui County Hawaii Wildfires

Details

• Personal Author:
  Beaucham, Catherine C. ; Estill, Cheryl F. ; Fent, Kenneth W. ; Mayer, Alexander C. ; Somerville, Nicholas ; Zeiler, Rachel J.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) received technical assistance requests from Maui County and the Hawai'i National Guard through a mission assignment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to evaluate first responders' exposures to chemicals and inorganic elements during the 2023 Maui Wildfires. We visited Maui County and the Maui County Fire Department in September 2023 to evaluate potential chemical and inorganic elements exposures in firefighters and others who responded to the Maui wildfires. We completed the following activities during our evaluation: measured the amount of markers of exposure to a variety of substances
  
  administered two questionnaires to collect responders' demographic, work, and potential exposure characteristics while responding to the wildfires
  
  analyzed the exposure marker results by self-reported demographic, occupational, and exposure characteristics collected on the questionnaires
  
  and categorized participating responders by employer and job into a variety of occupational subcategories. We found (1) that some employees had levels of inorganic elements above relevant reference values, (2) almost all Maui County and Hawai'i National Guard participants had detectable levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and organophosphate esters (OPEs), (3) some associations between occupation and the levels of inorganic elements and exposure markers measured in Maui County employees, and (4) we did not observe clear patterns between self-reported exposure characteristics and the exposure markers we measured in blood and urine. In the report, we made recommendations pertaining to following best practices during wildfires and during fire debris cleanup to prevent exposure to inorganic elements, PFAS, flame retardants, and other chemicals related to products of combustion.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Arsenic Cadmium Chromium Emergency Responders Firefighters Fires Inorganic Chemicals Lead Manganese Nickel Occupational Health Safety Wildfires

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• Keywords:
  Biological Monitoring Combustion Products Fire Fighters Fire Protection First Responders Flame Retardants National Security OPEs Organophosphate Esters OSHA Region 9 PBDEs Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances PFAS Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers Selenium Wildfire

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• Source:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HHE 2023-0136-0142-3400, 2024 Jul ; :1-130
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHHE2023013601423400
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Hawaii ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DFSE - Division of Field Studies and Engineering
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  130 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Archibold, Enada ; Bailey, Britnee ; Bartels, Jacob ; Bertke, Steve ; Booher, Donald E. ; Botelho, Julianne ; Calafat, Antonia ; Cale, Diana ; Calkins, Miriam ; Cheng, Po-Yung ; Chiu, Sophia ; Couch, James ; Cureau, Erin ; Darbonne, Kristin ; Davis, Mark ; Daye, Shaleah ; Elfers, Dee ; Frame, Tunde ; Georgi, Joaudimir C. ; Grant, Michael ; Hamilton, Cheryl ; Harnage, Emily E. ; Hubbard, Kendra ; Jarrett, Jeff ; Jayatilaka, Nayana ; Jones, Deanna ; Jones, Richard ; Kato, Kayoko ; Lawson, Tina ; Li, Jessica ; Lobo, Edgardo ; Luckhaupt, Sara ; Marsack, Katie ; Martin, Wyatt ; McKissic ; Courtney ; Michaud, Jonathan ; Moore, Michelle ; Ospina, Maria ; Outwater, Matthew ; Preau, Jim ; Restrepo, Paula ; Rinsky, Jessica L. ; Rivera, Angel ; Sammons, Deborah ; Shakirova, Gulya ; Sjodin, Andreas ; Smith, Bianca ; Smith, Kyle ; Sparks, Ken ; Stukes, Danielle ; Toennis, Christine ; Tran, Khoa ; Valentin-Blasini, Liza ; Vesper, Hubert ; Vidal, Meghan ; Wallon, Kristin ; Ward, Cynthia D. ; Watts, Shawna ; Williams, Reba ; Wong, Lee-Yang ; Wright, Jessica ; Zahoor, Neelam ; Zhang, Yalin
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069896
• Citation:
  NIOSH [2024]. Evaluation of first responders’ biological monitoring results after Maui County ; Hawaii wildfires. By Somerville N, Beaucham CC, Mayer AC, Zeiler RJ, Estill CF, Fent K. ; Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and ; Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Health Hazard Evaluation Report 2023-0136-0142-3400,
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  922160 - Fire Protection - (NAICS) ; 928110 - National Security - (NAICS)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9a47666acc9bc7c7079648302a282596e98b543e29d1a7295c3b242050fd9fa986bf07691d8ddac3376e9a644f8e7ac3de0b3e46832bd1da0b64574b23169aaa
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172299/cdc_172299_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.89 MB ]