Firefighter health
to contaminants during their work. In summer 2019, the Environmental Audit Committee recommended ‘that the Health and Safety Executive monitors the progress of the Fire Brigades Union research and provides assistance in implementing recommendations which seek to improve the work environments of UK firefighters. This should include measures to minimise contamination from clothing and equipment and reduce the overall exposure of firefighters, their families and the public’.
People and the environment •
to develop tools for quantification of the fire threat to people and the environment from large outdoor fires (waste, wildland and warehouse)
Air pollution and particularly atmospheric particulates are being recognised as a major cause of death, and unwanted fires make a significant but unquantified contribution to those deaths. Almost all air pollution continues to be
caused by combustion processes. In most cases, combustion efficiency is key to limiting pollutant emissions: although vastly more fuel is burned in controlled conditions, 10% overall PAH and particulates come from unwanted fires because of their much lower combustion efficiency. In both cases, robust analysis of combustion products is the key to assessing their hazards. Wildfires are a growing problem and a significant number of deaths have been recorded as a result of their fire toxicity. In the heatwave in
Moscow in 2010, with an estimated death toll of 56,000, average PM10 levels exceeded 300 µg m-3 on several days, resulting in 11,000 deaths from cardiovascular, respiratory, genito-urinary and nervous system diseases; with the combination of high temperatures and air pollution contributing to a further 2,000 deaths. Since quantitative data on environmentally
hazardous components of fire effluent cannot often be obtained from unwanted fires, appropriate data must come from real scale fire tests and simulations involving small scale physical fire models. Such data is almost entirely absent from literature reports or enquiries relating to these incidents.
Contamination and clean up •
investigation of post fire contamination in buildings, effectiveness of clean up and occupant exposure after clean up
There is growing evidence that fires result in significant contamination in the undamaged parts of a building. This is currently remediated by builders and decorators without any attempt to quantify contaminant levels other than by smell. If firefighters are succumbing to cancer at greater rates than the general population, it may be that those occupying buildings after a fire are being placed at an unnecessary risk
Professor Anna Stec is a professor in fire chemistry and toxicity at the University of Central Lancashire. For more information, view page 5
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www.frmjournal.com MARCH 2020
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