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Firefighter Health and Wellness

I was checking out Firehouse.com this morning and read the headline “N.J. city Bans On-Duty Firefighter from Gyms”. After reading the article, I realized that many of the people that we are accountable to (i.e. citizents and politicians) really don’t get it.  They don’t get how physically demanding this job is and they don’t get why we need to maintain active lifestyles and still get plenty of sleep and rest(even on duty).  Perhaps we (as a fire service) are not doing a good enough job of educating and justifying our programs.  During times like these, the need for us to justify almost everything should be expected.

The City’s Business Administrator justified their actions by saying “the cost of medical claims, not to mention loss of personnel as they recover from those injuries, makes the gyms an expensive liability.”  There are numerous long-term studies that confirm that comprehensive and ongoing health and fitness programs reduce worker comp claim and associated costs.  The collateral benefit is that you also get a healthier, happier and better prepared firefighting force.  The Administrator goes on to say, “Until someone tells us that working out is job-related, you can’t do it”.  Really?!

Perhaps someone should educate them on the  IAFF/IAFC Wellness Fitness initiative or on the “Firefighter Health and Safety Research” project being completed by Indiana University on the effects of physical conditioning and sleep on firefighter health.

Below is a short news clip of the I.U. Research project from WTHR 13 in Indianapolis.  Watch it and share it with your crews, your chiefs and your city officials.

FTM-PTB & Be Safe

Posted in Safety and Health

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No comments Posted by on August 26, 2009

LODD Summary: July 2009

In July there were 6 Line Of Duty Deaths:

  1. Thomas Marovich fell during a rappelling training exercise and suffered fatal traumatic injuries.   The cause of the accident is under investigation.
  2. Joseph Grace was found unresponsive in the firehouse kitchen after a busy shift.  Medical care was given immediately but he died later in the hospital.
  3. David Grass was participating in physical training when he fell ill.  He later died in the hospital of a brain injury.  Exact cause unknown.
  4. Ryan Wingard collapsed at the scene of a debris fire.  Just prior to his collapse, he reported that was not feeling well.  CPR was immediately initiated, but he also died in the hospital.  Cause is unknown.
  5. Robert Johnson died after a nine month battle with a head injury from unknown circumstances.  During a PR detail, he was found unconscious on the opposite side of the rig after not returning from getting a SCBA.  He was hospitalized but never regained consciousness.
  6. Elliott Haddix slumped over at the pump panel during a structure fire and died despite receiving immediate medical attention.  The exact cause of death is still undetermined.

In summary, there were 3 LODD attributed to stress/overexertion, 2 attributed to trauma and 1 attributed to a cerebrovascular accident.

It is difficult, if not impossible to prevent all types of health related deaths.  Some conditions are underlying, hereditary or have sudden onset with an unknown cause.  Sometimes the best we can do is maintain vigilance in participating in annual health physicals, including stress tests, to try to discover the problems before they become life threatening.  The combination of annual physicals and maintaining a healthy diet and routine exercise can be the best prevention of health related LODD.

RFB

FTM-PTB and Be Safe

Posted in Line Of Duty Deaths

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No comments Posted by on August 9, 2009