Heat-Related Illness Among Wildland Firefighters

Details

• Personal Author:
  Noonan CW ; O'Brien Semmens E
• Description:
  The 2019 bushfire catastrophe in Australia is only the most recent example of the increasing duration and intensity of wildfire events. In the past decade, the USA experienced 67,000 wildfires annually with an average 7 million acres burned. Over 34,000 US wildland firefighters (WLFFs) are engaged in arduous, high-risk duty, yet several features of this occupation limit our ability to understand the associated short-term and long-term health risks. For example, wildfire suppression activities are spread over multiple state and federal agencies, and most WLFFs are seasonally employed and assigned to multiple locations within a season. The mobile nature of firefighting, oftentimes in difficult terrain, further complicates the potential for observational occupational health studies in this population. In this edition of OEM, West et al, overcame these challenges with one of the largest to date field studies of WLFF physiological measures with directly observed work activity assessment. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Firefighters Fires Hot Temperature Occupational Health Risk Assessment Safety Wildfires
• Keywords:
  Body Temperature Fire Fighters Fire Fighting Fire Suppression Heat Exposure Hot Environments Hyperthermia Job Analysis Occupational Health Physiological Measurements Risk Analysis Seasonal Factors Work Practices

  More +
• ISSN:
  1351-0711
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Montana ; OSHA Region 8
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  431-432
• Volume:
  77
• Issue:
  7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20059995
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2020 Jul; 77(7):431-432
• Contact Point Address:
  Professor Curtis W Noonan, Center for Population Health Research, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA
• Email:
  curtis.noonan@umontana.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  University of Montana, Missoula
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20180901
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• End Date:
  20200831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:05d6258b238afa286f6ae9e8d028c24943430597e88e7e3ef8cfdb8f7881a96d8f1873c119d15cb1ff54326e756e7b726184be3160312828c9a494a8cefd968d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224041/cdc_224041_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 198.88 KB ]