BACKGROUND The treatment and prevention of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) is currently one of the major challenges in medicine. The impact of working conditions on metabolic risk has not been adequately studied. Our objective was to compare the prevalence of MetS and metabolic risk in two extremely different occupational groups: firefighters and office workers. METHODS A total of 143 male subj...

The aim of the present study was to assess respiratory health in professional firefighters. A total of 101 male professional firefighters from Basel, Switzerland, were included in the study. A control group consisting of 735 male subjects of the general population was composed of the Basel sample of the Swiss Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults. All subjects were administered a s...

More than 100 firefighters lose their lives in the line of duty each year; many of these deaths are caused by cardiovascular events and underlying coronary heart disease. In addition, firefighters are at higher-than-normal risk of developing certain types of cancer. To improve health and fitness among its firefighters, the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department developed and implemented an annual wellne...

BACKGROUND Little is known about rates of alcohol consumption in career firefighters. AIMS To assess the quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption among career firefighters and the covariates that influence consumption levels. METHODS A convenience sample of career firefighters completed an online, self-administered, health assessment survey. Hierarchical binary logistic regression asse...

BACKGROUND Coronary heart disease (CHD) is responsible for 45% of on-duty deaths among United States firefighters. We sought to identify occupational and personal risk factors associated with on-duty CHD death. METHODS We performed a case-control study, selecting 52 male firefighters whose CHD deaths were investigated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. We selected t...

The main objective of the research project FUMEXP is to study the potential effect of forest-fire smoke emissions on forest firefighter’s health. FUMEXP implied an extensive number of measurements of individual exposure to smoke pollutants and of medical parameters, for a group of firefighters during fire experiments and wildfires. For the smoke exposure monitoring, ten firefighters from four d...

UNLABELLED Firefighters are exposed to a wide range of risks, among them, biological risk. The objective was to analyze working conditions of firefighters in the city of Campo Grande, MS, Brazil, focusing on risk conditions of exposure to biological material. Three hundred and seven (307) firefighters were interviewed for data collection and observed for ergonomic job analysis (AET). RESULTS ...

BACKGROUND This study provides a comprehensive, population-based examination of tobacco use among both career and volunteer firefighters. METHODS Data are from a population-based cohort study of randomly selected career (N = 11) and volunteer (N = 13) departments comprised of 677 male firefighters. RESULTS Unadjusted rates of smoking were 13.6% and 17.4% for career and volunteer firefighter...

INTRODUCTION Depression has been found to increase the risk of mortality in patients with coronary artery disease through a mechanism of changing cardiac autonomic tone which is reflected by alteration of heart rate variability indices. This study investigated whether such mechanism existed in firefighters who were at high risk of depression and sudden cardiac death. METHODS AND RESULTS In to...