The interplay between inflammatory and cortisol responses modulates an appropriate response to a stressor. Exposure to severe stressors, however, may alter the actions and relationships of these responses and contribute to negative health outcomes. Physical work and sleep restriction are two stressors faced by wildland firefighters, yet their influence on the relationship between inflammatory a...

OBJECTIVES The present study aims to determine the causal relationship between self-rated depression and experiences of injury and accidents in municipal firefighters. METHODS A panel survey of 186 municipal firefighters measured with depressive symptoms according to the Beck's depression index (BDI) was conducted. The effects of job-related injuries and accidents were evaluated using self-ad...

In the Firefighter Problem, a fire breaks out at a vertex of a graph G, then f firefighters protect f vertices. At each subsequent time step, the fire spreads from each “burned” vertex to all of its unprotected neighbours, then f firefighters “protect” f unburned vertices. Once a vertex is protected or burned, it remains so from then onward. A common objective is to determine the minimum number...

Firefighters fall behind in the general public in meeting optimal levels of the seven American Heart Association metrics of cardiovascular health. Selected interventions for decreasing firefighter cardiovascular disease and risks are reviewed. Many cardiovascular risk factors are related to lifestyle and firefighters are at increased risk for cardiovascular events. Healthy People 2020 and the A...

Wildfire firefighting is an extremely demanding occupation performed under hot environment. The use of personal protective clothing (PPC) is needed to protect subjects from the thermal exposure. However, the additional use of PPC may increase the wildland firefighters' physiological strain, and consequently limit their performance. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of four differe...

AIM  To review the literature about the effects of environmental noise on the hearing ability of firefighters. METHOD  The PubMed and Scielo databases were searched and studies from 2002 to 2012 that included the keywords firefighters, noise, and hearing loss were identified. Initially, 24 studies were selected, but only 10 met the inclusion criteria of investigating the effects of occupation...

OBJECTIVES To address the causes and prevention of fire incidents involving aluminum bodied oxygen regulators used by firefighters or emergency medical technicians. METHODS The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the United States Food and Drug Administration, and an independent forensic investigator examined several incidents involving injury to firefighters and emergency ...

INTRODUCTION Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common condition among Japanese firefighters. The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship of PTSD scores to job stress, social support, and depressive stress among Japanese firefighters. METHODS A total of 1,667 Japanese firefighters working for the local government completed a questionnaire that was used to gather informat...

Wildland (forest) firefighters are exposed to a wide range of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in forest fire smoke. PAH undergo metabolic activation and can subsequently bind to DNA. In this study, we investigated the association between occupational and dietary PAH exposures and the formation of WBC PAH-DNA adducts in a population of wildland firefighters. An enzyme-linked ...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate factors associated with heart rate variability in firefighters working in a metropolitan city in South Korea. METHODS Self-administered questionnaires including Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS) as well as surveys collecting socio-demographic characteristics and work-related factors were given to 962 firefighters. After exclusion for m...