T
he IAFF has partnered with four fire service research organizations* to conduct a study to determine what staffing levels, response times and deployment of resources work best when responding to variety of fire or EMS events in an effort to minimize the safety risks to fire fighters, paramedics and the public.
Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (FIRE Act), this study will help develop tools for fire departments to use to better assess the risks in their communities and to deploy resources more effectively and efficiently to match the level of risk.
The results of this study will be especially useful to the many fire departments across the nation that are challenged by budget crises, rising call volume, personnel and equipment shortages, security issues and an overall expectation to do more with less. These and other factors, all too often, lead to an increasing number of line-of-duty injuries and death.
More than 400 fire departments throughout the United States have been selected to participate in this national study. Each department will be asked to participate in the data-gathering effort using a custom-developed web-based form. Although participation is voluntary, all selected departments are strongly encouraged to cooperate so that the integrity of the scientific study is maintained. All data provided will be treated confidentially.
Any fire department not selected for inclusion in the study is still welcome to participate in entering data by signing up at www.firereporting.org. Once a department is registered, it will be issued an ID code and password for data entry. Data entered will be used for validation purposes.
For more information, click here or contact Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell at (202) 824-1594 or Lmoore@iaff.org.
*International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC); National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI); and the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI).
Firefighting is hard, dangerous work at any time. But during the hot summer, the risks increase exponentially.Whether it’s heat cramps (involuntary muscle contractions), heat exhaustion (weakness, nausea, extreme fatigue) or heat stroke (caused by extremely elevated body temperature), you need to know how to protect yourself.
Equally important, your employer must identify heat stress risks and provide training to help prevent it.
Employer Responsibilities
CalOSHA’s Injury and Illness Prevention Program requires that employers identify all health and safety hazards, including heat stress. This flyer spells out the basics of what employers need to do to insure that the workplace threat has been identified and training provided.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION FROM CALOSHA ON HEAT STRESS AND EMPLOYEE REQUIREMENTS
Tips on guarding against heat stress
NFPA 1584 outlines the best practices for firefighters in preventing heat stress and rehabilitating on the scene. Click HERE to download a PowerPoint presentation outlining NFPA 1584.
You can protect heat stress and more serious heat disorders in several ways:
- Maintain a high level of aerobic fitness.
- Acclimate yourself to the increased heat by gradually increasing work time in the heat, taking care to replace fluids, and resting as needed.
- Before work, drink 1 to 2 cups of water, juice, or a sport drink. Avoid excess coffee or other caffeine drinks.
- While working, take several fluid breaks every hour, drinking at least 1 quart of fluid. Drink as much as you can during the lunch break
- After work, continue drinking to replace fluid losses. Always drink more than you think you need
- When on the job, wear loose-fitting garments to enhance air movement. Wear cotton T-shirts and underwear to help sweat evaporate.
- Always train and work with a partner. Remind each other to drink lots of fluids and keep an eye on each other. If your partner suffers a heat disorder, start treatment immediately.
Links and Information
The following links will help provide more information on how you and your employer can prevent heat stress problems this fire season.
CalOSHA — Heat-Related Illness Prevention and Information
Rehabilitation — Standards, Traps and Tools — an article from Fire Engineering magazine, May, 2004, summarizing heat-related issues and the NFPA 1584 standards
The Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security in the U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously approved legislation to provide additional funding for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Services (SAFER) and FIRE Act grant programs. As approved, the 2009 Homeland Security Appropriations Act for 2009 includes $230 million for SAFER and $570 million for FIRE Act.
In his budget for 2009, the president proposed significant cuts to first responder grants, providing only $300 million for FIRE Act grants and eliminating the SAFER grant program altogether.
“I applaud Chairman David Price (D-NC) and the Subcommittee for restoring funding to SAFER and FIRE Act grants,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “The president’s proposal to cut these essential programs was ill-conceived from the start, and would prove incredibly foolish today as local fire department budgets face substantial strain in the weak economy.”
The funding allocated by the Subcommittee provides an additional $40 million for SAFER and $10 million for FIRE Act grants over what was appropriated for Fiscal Year 2008.
The Appropriations bill also restores the president’s cuts to additional programs first responder grant programs, including the State Homeland Security Grant Program, the Metropolitan Medical Response System and Interoperable Communications grants.
The Subcommittee’s action is only the first step in the federal budget process. The legislation will next be considered by the full Appropriations Committee the week of June 16.
The Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) awarded Forsyth County with a Health Promotion & Wellness Incentive Grant,
totaling $3,500. The grant will enable Forsyth County to provide educational resources to promote the health and wellness of county employees and their family members.
Forsyth County was one of 42 Georgia counties to receive the grant in the ACCG - Group Health Benefits Program (GHBP). As a member of the program, the county qualified for the grant based on its application showcasing the county’s commitment to encouraging employee health and wellness.
As part of the grant process, Forsyth County’s Benefit Specialist Beth Connors will serve as the health promotion leader for the county. She will develop and implement a health promotion plan for the county.
Wellness programs in workplaces boost positive records of improving employee health while reducing medical claims.
Forsyth County is eligible to apply for the Health Promotion & Wellness Incentive Grant annually. Eighty-seven Georgia counties currently participate in the ACCG – GHBP.
There’s more to Robby Cowart than his disease. He’s a firefighter. He’s a family man. He’s a beloved friend. He also refuses to let his battle with cancer keep him down. Cowart, 35, was first diagnosed in 2001 with osteosarcoma, a cancer that forms in bone. The cancer was on the left side of his head and was treated with surgery and chemotherapy. 
It reappeared in 2005 in the same place. “After 30 surgeries and two rounds of radiation they said it was gone,” Cowart said. “Three years later, it has reappeared in my lungs.” Because of his condition, Cowart has been reassigned from Forsyth County Fire Station 3 to administrative duties at the fire department’s headquarters.
“I want my lungs back and I want to get back on the fire truck and get back to my crew,” Cowart said. In about a week, he is going to a clinic in San Antonio, where he will participate in clinical trials of a drug called Reolysin. Cowart said he is optimistic the treatment will extinguish the cancer once and for all. The drug, Cowart explained, uses a virus. When it comes in contact with tumors, it reproduces until “it blows them apart.” “It educates the immune system to fight that particular cancer,” he said. “That’s how it’s been working, so that’s what I’m going out there for.” Though he would rather be fighting fires, he said he is grateful to be working. “I’ve been very fortunate to be where I’m at,” he said. “The administrations at the fire department and the (human resources) department have been more than gracious to allow me to work in an office mode until I go out there.” He and his wife, Melody, will make the trip together, but will leave their daughters, ages 13 and 9, with family. “My family is my life and my wife, what can I say, she’s wonderful,” he said. “My kids are my inspiration. I can’t say enough.” Cowart’s trip has garnered the support of his siblings as well. His older brother, Steve Cowart, and younger sister, Christie Drake, have organized a raffle scheduled for Tuesday at Fire Station 3 to raise money for his trip. Steve Cowart said his brother’s diagnosis came as a shock to him and his sister.
“I was just devastated because I want him to enjoy his life with his little girls and I want his little girls to grow up to have their daddy around,” he said. “We both were just devastated.” Drake said they lost their father in 1992 and their mother died of breast cancer in 2005, about the same time her brother’s cancer came back. Drake described her brother as “the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.” “He’s very honest, very dependable. He’s the type of guy who’ll give you the shirt off his back,” she said. Firefighter Jack Allen has known Robby Cowart for about five years. Though they never worked out of the same station together, they have formed a solid friendship. “He’s your best friend even if he doesn’t like you,” Allen said. “He’d do anything for you. He’d do anything for anybody.” Allen is vice president of the local chapter of the Red Knights Motorcycle Club, which consists of firefighters who are also motorcycle enthusiasts. Allen explained that the Red Knights hold two charity rides a year and members participate in rides sponsored by other groups as well. The organization is organizing a ride June 21 to help Cowart. “This one hits close to home,” Allen said. He said Cowart is always in good spirits and he has never known him to have a negative attitude. “He’s just like this big guy and you would think, ‘I do not want to mess with that guy.’ But he’s just a big ol’ teddy bear,” he said. “He’s fought this twice already and now it’s gotten into his lungs and now it’s like where do we go? What do we do? How can we help?”
Cowart leaves June 9 for Texas and will have to stay in San Antonio a minimum of 45 days and a maximum of eight weeks for treatment. “Without the fire department and my family, none of this would be possible,” he said. “I never have felt worthy of such attention because, you know, I’m just me. I just try to be as honest as I can be in life.” Cowart said his struggle has been an “emotional roller coaster.” “My wish is to get back with my crew, get this behind me and watch my kids grow old,” he said.
Local 4230 wish Robbie a speedy recovery.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will begin accepting applications for FY 2008 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Services (SAFER) grants May 27, 2008, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The deadline for receipt of applications is June 27, 2008, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Program guidance is available on the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) web site. Under the DHS Appropriations Act of 2008, Congress appropriated $190 million for SAFER grants.
Applications will be automated and accessible from the AFG web site. SAFER grants are administered by the DHS’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
A new study conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Health under a grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) confirms that there are elevated cancer risks among fire fighters and that these risks are consistent with other studies of fire fighters.
In the current study, “Cancer Incidence Among Male Massachusetts Firefighters, 1987–2003” researchers found that professional fire fighters in Massachusetts had higher-than-expected rates of colon cancer, brain cancer, bladder and kidney cancers and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Data from the Massachusetts cancer registry for the years 1986 through 2003 provided 2,125 cancer diagnoses among professional male firefighters.
This study further supports the position of the IAFF that there is sufficient evidence demonstrating that fire fighters suffer from cancer due to exposures that occur while performing the tasks involved in fire fighting.
The IAFF encourages all members to participated in the IAFF’s occupational health database and cancer registry. The information that members provide by completing the short questionnaire will be used by the IAFF and its scientific partners to identify diseases that fire fighters are most at risk for developing. The results of such efforts will be used to improve the health and safety of fire fighters. Click here for more information.
Just as a reminder, there will be a board meeting on Wednesday, June 4th (A Shift) @ 6:30 pm at the union hall.
May 13, 2008 – In a remarkable show of bipartisan support for the IAFF and its members, 69 senators voted May 13 to consider H.R. 980, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act. The 69-29 vote on the motion to proceed permits the Senate to debate and amend the bill.
“Today, Senators from both parties stood up in support of America’s fire fighters, and stood up in support of our right to collectively bargain,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “This vote is truly a testament to the strength of our union and the respect its members garner on Capitol Hill.”
Eighteen Republicans joined all 51 Democrats to vote in favor of the IAFF motion, marking the beginning of a week-long debate on the bill.
“Although we won this first vote handily, this is only the first of many steps we must take before the Cooperation Act passes the Senate,” says Schaitberger. “Our anti-labor opponents will not rest, and neither can we. It is paramount that every member continue to lobby their senators to pass the Cooperation Act.”
The Senate is expected to consider numerous amendments to H.R. 980 before voting on cloture and on final passage later this week.
To see how your senators voted on the motion to proceed, click here.
Read General President Schaitberger’s statement in support of S. 2123.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has issued a safety advisory regarding the set-up of aerial ladders with a locking waterway. NIOSH is currently investigating an April 8, 2008, fire fighter line-of-duty-death involving an aerial ladder with a locking waterway. This incident highlights the importance of following the manufacturer’s recommendations for aerial ladder operations to ensure the safety of IAFF members.
In addition, all fire apparatus, including fire department aerial devices, should be inspected on an annual basis as required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In 1910.156 it specifically states that the “employer shall maintain and inspect, at least annually, fire fighting equipment to assure the safe operational condition of the equipment. Fire fighting equipment that is in damaged or unserviceable condition shall be removed from service and replaced.”
Further, NFPA 1911 Standard for the Inspection, Maintenance, Testing, and Retirement of In-Service Automotive Fire Apparatus requires the annual inspection and testing of all fire apparatus, including the aerial device. The complete NIOSH User Notice is available online. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/SafetyAdvisory05052008.html