Cancer message for firefighters (more)

Cancer awareness within the fire service has reached unprecedented heights. Recent studies have highlighted the rising incidence of certain cancers among firefighters, particularly affecting younger members of the profession. This has spurred the implementation of various new hygiene practices, particularly focusing on post-fire hygiene. Among these, the role of turnout clothing as a potential carrier of carcinogenic substances is becoming increasingly clear. It's essential that turnout gear is properly cleaned after each fire, yet this presents a significant challenge for many departments, which aren't accustomed to regular cleaning routines.

Even departments equipped with multiple sets of gear to rotate out after a fire struggle to meet the current demands for cleaning frequency. New procedures, such as gross decontamination performed outside the fireground, are being adopted to minimize contamination risks and prevent the spread of harmful substances to vehicles, stations, or personal vehicles used for transporting gear.

While the fire service still has a long way to go in fully adopting these new hygiene protocols, several organizations are making encouraging strides forward.

Looking back, the practice of cleaning turnout clothing has evolved significantly over the last few decades. In the early 1990s, initiatives by firefighter safety groups like FIERO, NAFER, CAFER, and SAFER helped shape NFPA 1851, the standard for selecting, caring for, and maintaining structural firefighting protective ensembles. This standard set guidelines for cleaning procedures, including handling, washing machines, detergent pH levels, and drying temperatures. However, despite the rapid advancements in the laundry industry, surprisingly little has been added to the standard to improve cleaning processes further.

Today, new methods such as ozone treatment, carbon dioxide-based dry cleaning, and advanced machinery are being promoted for their superior ability to remove soils from turnout clothing. Yet, for the industry to truly progress, metrics must be developed to measure the effectiveness of these processes. The Fire Protection Research Foundation, affiliated with the National Fire Protection Association, recently launched a project aimed at establishing methods to verify the cleanliness of turnout clothing and confirm the removal of harmful contaminants.

Although this may sound like a complex scientific endeavor, it's a challenging task. One obstacle lies in the fact that every fire generates thousands of unique combustion products, depending on the building materials and contents involved. Some of these chemicals are highly toxic, while others are less harmful. With no two fires being identical, pinpointing specific contaminants becomes a complicated task without the aid of futuristic tools like a "Star Trek tricorder."

Sampling the clothing adds another layer of complexity. To measure low levels of contaminants accurately, pieces must be cut from the garments. Since contamination isn't evenly distributed across the entire item, logic must guide where samples are taken, and the findings generalized for the whole piece. Most of the analytical techniques currently employed by labs are designed for soil or water samples, which are used to quantify environmental contaminants—some of which are also carcinogens in fire smoke. However, these methods don’t always translate well to testing turnout clothing.

The new project aims to develop a methodology applicable everywhere, capable of assessing whether key fireground contaminants have been effectively removed through a chosen cleaning process. For this to work, researchers must first create a way to uniformly contaminate lab samples with a set of representative substances. These samples would then be inserted into full-sized clothing items, which would undergo cleaning using the intended procedures. Afterward, the previously contaminated samples could be extracted and analyzed to determine if the contaminants were successfully removed.

Replicating the fireground scenario is crucial. The challenge lies in simulating how clothing typically interacts with fire gases, carbon particles, and smoke, rather than merely immersing the material in a liquid chemical mixture. One proposed solution involves burning pellets containing known chemical substances and carbon in a high-temperature furnace, with the resulting fumes directed onto the material samples. Extensive validation work will be required to prove that these procedures mimic real-world contamination scenarios and can consistently evaluate cleaning effectiveness.

If successful, this approach will allow specific cleaning equipment, agents, and processes to be tested to identify which combinations are most effective at removing carcinogens or toxins that can be absorbed through the skin. Equally important, differences in equipment type, wash temperature, and detergent chemistry can be evaluated to find the optimal conditions for cleaning turnout gear.

Such procedures could eventually lead to a future where independent service providers are certified for having the right equipment and processes to clean turnout clothing effectively, similar to how organizations are currently verified for repair capabilities.

One unintended consequence of more frequent cleaning, even when done correctly, is that turnout clothing may experience accelerated wear and tear, potentially shortening its lifespan. Laundering can degrade turnout gear faster than anticipated, sometimes negatively impacting its performance. Therefore, cleaning processes must not only be validated for removing soils and contaminants but also assessed to ensure they don’t cause excessive wear or damage when applied frequently—more than once or twice a year.

Clearly, keeping turnout clothing clean is just one piece of the puzzle in reducing firefighter exposure to carcinogens. Exposures happen in various ways, but by ensuring persistent contamination linked to adverse health effects is minimized, at least one critical aspect of firefighter hygiene is greatly improved.

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