Firefighter safety
Jennifer Keir is exploring how firefighters can minimize exposures to harmful combustion products while on the job.
Firefighters have a dangerous job. They enter burning buildings to save people who may be caught in flames, and they administer life- saving first aid to fire victims. The rewards for these acts of heroism are few, and the risks to a firefighter’s personal health are considerable. It has long been known that firefighters experience higher rates of cancer and other maladies than the general population, and occupational exposure to combustion products and other chemicals in fire smoke is suspected to be the cause. What wasn’t known previously is how much exposure firefighters experience while on the job, and what is the primary route of exposure to these chemicals.
Jennifer Keir’s research is to better understand the chemical exposures that firefighters experience while on the job. We recently published several studies to determine whether firefighters were exposed to toxicants including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can cause DNA mutations and cancer. Results clearly showed that firefighters had on average three to five times the amount of metabolites, or by-products of PAHs, in their urine after a fire compared to before the fire. Some individuals had more than 70 times their pre- exposure doses.
Structure fire.
Photo: Jen Keir
The mutagenic potency of the urine, which reveals the potential for genetic mutations that may lead to cancer, was also about four times higher after a fire than before, on average, with some individuals having more than 70 times the mutagenic potency than pre- exposure levels. An unexpected finding was that the most likely route of exposure to these chemicals was through the skin, rather than by inhalation. These results suggested that skin decontamination can reduce these exposures. She is now conducting a study to see whether decontamination methods are effective in reducing exposures to harmful combustion products.
Media on this story:
Fire Rescue Magazine – March 16, 2018
Découverte, Radio Canada April 22, 2018 – starts 12:30 minutes into the broadcast